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/ATSKY’S 


Posthumous Memoirs. 



JOS. M. WADE, BOSTON, MASS., 

AND 

H. A. COPLEY, CANNING TOWN, LONDON. 
1896. 




















INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATION. 


I give this book to the world precisely as it was given to me, 
changing only the words “ Spiritualism ” to “ Spiritism,” and “ Spir¬ 
itualists ” to “ Spiritists,” that being the meaning intended; for 
“ Spiritualists ” are few and often thousands of miles apart. The 
memoirs were given to me in the following marvelous manner : I 
was investigating materialization and precipitation of paintings and 
letters, as usual I being the only sitter, or audience. I had a long 
talk with James Freeman Clarke, Michael Faraday, and many of the 
miost notable men who have lived in past ages; all materialized. 
During that evening they told me to get a new Yost typewriting 
machine, and place in it the cabinet with some folio paper. The 
proposition was entirely new to me. I secured the machine and 
paper, and placed them upon the table in the cabinet , which was 
in the corner of a parlor, I sitting about twelve feet from the cabinet 
and the medium perhaps five feet. The parlor was darkened, mak¬ 
ing the cabinet perfectly dark. In perhaps one minute after the 
conditions were made the typewriting machine began to work, as 
rapidly as it was possible for a machine to run. The spirit of 
George W. Stevens, an army officer, was given as the operator, and 
Mr. G. W. N. Yost, the inventor of the typewriting machine used, 
who died over a year ago, superintended the operation, while Ma¬ 
dame Blavatsky dictated her own memoirs. Other matter was 
dictated and will appear at the end of the book. This matter was 
dictated by the individuals whose names are signed to it. During 
the materializing seances Madame Blavatsky would often sit inside 
the cabinet, with her head outside, having forced the entranced 
medium from her chair, and at such times she would ask me to draw 
my chair up near to her, so that our heads would be only about 
twelve inches apart, when she would talk about what pertained to 
her life history and that which was near and dear to her, the Theo- 
sophical Society. It appears that those about her either could not or 
would not understand her, while most of them were bent on making 
money out of her personality, and seeking fame instead of seeking 
to understand the principle involved and disseminate it. Of these 
things she complained bitterly. In our first conversation she swore 
when alluding to Judge (he was then living, but she told me that he 
would die soon), but said, “ Excuse me, Wade; I did swear in life, 



2 


INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATION. 


and smoked most of the time.” She also stated on several occa¬ 
sions that she regretted that she had not known me while in earth 
life. On one occasion, while I was not thinking of anything in par¬ 
ticular, she almost ran out of the cabinet for about fifteen feet, then 
back again. She had told me that in life she had elephantiosis, 
which all but crippled her in a deformed body, and she no doubt 
ran out of the cabinet that I might see her condition in her later 
years. The sheets of typewritten manuscript were thrown out of 
the cabinet, one at a time, at the rate of eight or nine per hour, 
as written. At the end of the hour the machine would cease 
and all would be as silent as the tomb. We sat two and three 
times per week, about an hour each time, until the work was fin¬ 
ished. During the time of sitting for this work I received several 
remarkable “drop” or “precipitated letters,” but all of a personal 
nature, being either instructions or explanations; therefore I do not 
reproduce them at this time. It is doubtful if any man ever delved 
deeper into the phenomena of spiritism than I have done, in my 
search for a spiritual condition. I have a room full of oil portraits, 
many of them 24 by 30 inches in size, and yet often given instan¬ 
taneously, by Vandyke, Angelo and other artists, without paint or 
brush. I have one of the “Virgin” Mary when enciente\ another 
of Joseph, Mary and child, with mule, in Egypt; another of Mary 
at the tomb, and still another of Christ in his prime. 

I went out in the Astral, and wrote through others on deep occult 
subjects, years before I knew what it meant. I have had “drop 
letters” for years, and can show them all. On one evening I was 
given two paintings, 17 x 23, in two or three minutes’ time, and have 
been given large quantities of water color sketches; all fine art work. 
I mention these things simply to convey to strangers the fact that I 
am no novice, but have delved deeply into the occult world, at great 
expense in time and money, shunning all society as a hermit would, 
or I would not be made the recipient of such deep manifestation. 
To those weak enough to cry “ egotism,” I would say that whatever 
is original is personal, and were it not told it would remain a mys¬ 
tery to the world at large. In this work Madame Blavatsky hints at 
my taking the leadership in true theosophy; i.e., founded in The 
Truth. I cannot see this possible. Although I am engaged in the 
publication of a trade paper and am a very active man, still I am a 
hermit, as it were, in a busy life, in a busy city. I do not want 
money, and fame is but a bubble; therefore I cannot see it possible 
to mix in any form of organized society. 

I want the reader to note carefully the quotations made from 
other works. They were made rapidly without stoppage of the 


INTRODUCTORY EXPLANATION. 


3 


machine. I have compared only one of them, but believe them all 
to be accurate. I would state here that when the Masters and 
Mahatmas are willing to aid me I can copy any document that has 
ever existed or that exists now, even were it buried in the bowels 
of the earth, or even those that have been destroyed thousands of 
years ago; for nothing is impossible with God, and there is neither 
God (good) nor devil (evil), heaven nor hell outside the microcosm 
of each individual, and man can be whatever he has the will to be. 
When man becomes incarnated with The Truth, he can say “ The 
world is mine.” 

I have said enough. “ Seek and ye shall find,” and whatever 
ye seek that shall ye surely find, whether it be God or mammon. 
The secret lies in knowing what the word “seek” means. 

Jos. M. Wade. 

Dorchester, Mass., September, 1896. 




POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS 


OF 


Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. 


DICTATED FROM THE SPIRIT-WORLD, UPON THE TYPEWRITER, INDE¬ 
PENDENT OF ALL HUMAN CONTACT, UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF 
G. W. N. YOST, TO BRING TO LIGHT THE THINGS OF TRUTH, 

AND AFFIRM THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE AND THE 
ETERNAL ACTIVITY OF THE SOUL IMMORTAL. 


“ Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do 
our duty as we understand it.” — Abraham Lincoln. 


Given to my Astral frietid and associate, Jos. M. Wade. — H. P. B. 


u * « 4 

» > 

FIAT JUSTITIA, RUAT C(ELUM, HOC TEMPORE. 


BOSTON, MASS.: 
PUBLISHED BY JOS. M. WADE. 

i8t,6. 







Copyright, 1896 , 

Bl r 

JOS. M. WADE. 

Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London. 


O • 
' 


L. H. Lane, Printer, Boston 


DEDICATION. 


It is my purpose to dedicate this volume to my chosen friend 
and posthumous companion, Joseph M. Wade, of Dorchester, Mass. 

By his devotion to the work of Spirit elucidation, and investiga¬ 
tion in a neutral harmony of mind, he has enlisted the sympathies 
and support of the Higher Intelligences in the supernal world of 
Spirit. 

Than this devoted and true man, after all my associations with 
numberless chelas and students all over the mortal world, I do not 
at this present moment know of one whom I can trust to edit and 
endorse these, my memoirs, from the spirit-world. None better 
qualified to speak of the phenomena with a trained acumen and 
with an impeccable judgment. 

At this crisis in the affairs of the mortal world, it is imperative 
that some one should come forth to lead men in the troubled de¬ 
tails of existence upon this planet, — not only with respect to the 
Society of which I was leader, but in the fuller aspect of an Avatar, 
or person exactly designed to bring peace and harmony to all en¬ 
quiring minds, and to find in the teachings of spirit a true solution 
of the social and economic questions which are the stumbling block 
in the pathway of the evolutionary impulse. 

In the personality of this humble and patient student of Nature 
I find those qualities which would make him the esteemed of men 
were he known in his true qualifications, and it is my intention to 
bring him out into the great world of thought, in his capacity of 
leader, by this work of memoirs. 

“ So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, which moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 

Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.” 

—William Cullen Bryant — “ Thanatopsis.” 

































PREFACE. 


I have been permitted the power to give to the World the fol¬ 
lowing pages, and explain for my friends, as far as I possibly can, 
the complexity of my solemn, sacred, and phenomenal life. 

For while there have been attempts upon the part of others to 
represent me to the World in varied characteristics, they have for 
the most part only confused the public mind, and brought obliquity, 
derision, and masterpieces of doubt, instead of explaining, arranging, 
and correctly stating facts and details of events, elucidations of 
mysteries, and that necessary element within all human existences, 
the raison d’etre or principle of necessity, without which any em¬ 
bodied entity might be made a senseless being, and have absolutely 
no excuse for its existence. 

I may say that I have been misjudged, when judged at all, more 
by the opinion of my critics than by any acts of my own conduct? 
limitation of morality, or confusion and error in teachings; for were 
it not so, it would be more profitable for those doubting my in¬ 
tegrity to attempt to so understand their own duty and their per¬ 
sonal interests, to better solve for the World the problems which I 
and my associates attempted, than to continually make more hard 
our tasks and refute the results, which they are obliged to admit, 
whether they desire to or not. 

Not one of our attempted traducers have ever shown that they 
were acting to secure a greater element of truth for the World, or 
had better or more satisfactory power to eradicate error. Not at 
all! Prima facie their efforts only show a desire to float their bark, 
poorly enough constructed, too, upon our waters, merely for the 
purpose of having people know that they existed, and had it not 
been for the renown and notoriety which my movements attained, 
they would have been without a theme, and too impoverished in the 
domain of originality to have found one. 

So to all these I have been a bait to attract them to fame, and 
they have used my poor personality as a raft to the shipwrecked 
seeker after renown, to float their miserable carcass within the con¬ 
fines of a shallow, mediocrity of publicity, or, as in the case of 
Sinnett and others, they have lived off my personality as crows 
would feed off any element which their taste accepted, while their 
reason criticised. 

To all I may make this consubstantial remark now, when my 
body has passed from this sphere where they can harm it more, that 
I was incarnate for the purposes of the Parabrahmic powers, whether 



10 


PREFACE. 


Spirits, Mahatmas, Masters Elementais, or any power under the sun, 
and that I was answerable to them alone. It was no part of my 
mission that I should tell Olcott the truth, be honest with Judge and 
Sinnett, make honest or fraudulent miracles, or serve as a laborer 
for the Spiritists, or a well tried servant for the Theosophists, be¬ 
come a drudge for my friends, and a fool for my foes to wrangle 
over or deify as they wished. 

My mission was to serve my " Master,” to bring to light the hid¬ 
den things of knowledge, to attempt to illuminate the World with 
the hidden and arcane powers of the Nirmanakaya, to give the the¬ 
ories of the Brothers, whether of Luxor, Thibet, or of any Brothers 
anywhere, instead of the pusillanimous creeds, bigotry, lies, sacer¬ 
dotal effluvia, and the whole establishment of organized hypocricies 
which was so powerful at the time when I attempted my mission, 
and the ones who worked with me, were held to give their efforts 
whether they believed in me or not. 

We were not collaborators for the purpose of passing judgment 
upon me, to discover the secret of my Nature, to criticise my phe¬ 
nomena or bring investigators so to do, to analyze my disposition, 
to find fault with my character, and at my expense elevate their 
own. This is why “ Master ” never paid any attention to their 
cacophanal rhodomontade, never rebuked me, nor accepted their 
proffered services instead of my own, when offered with sanctimoni¬ 
ous and pious preferment. 

“ Master ” read the heart, and could discover in these self- 
appointed agents no greater purity, honesty, gratitude, or any other 
of the moral virtues than I myself possessed, although the aspirants 
themselves were cock-sure of their own possibilities, and knew that 
they were better fitted to teach than the Nirmanakayas themselves. 

I will try in these, my memoirs, to avoid anything in the con¬ 
troversial line, and do not choose to pose as an apodictic philoso¬ 
pher, one felicitous in argument and entrancing in etherial intel¬ 
lectualities, but will attempt to give the story and account of my 
life, with its anomalies, its seeming contradictions, paradoxical 
revelation, conflicting remarks and scathing iconoclasm. It may 
not suit the flapdoodle of my contemporaneous colleagues, and 
it may as a finality refute and discountenance the absurdities 
and generalizations of such flimsy literary irritants as, for instance, 
Arthur Lillie, who, whatever his merit as a writer, has added 
nothing to the welfare of men by such an absurd publication as is 
his “ Madame Blavatsky and Her Theosophy,” miscalled a study, 
when it is, in fact, merely spleen, errors and a confusion of dates, 
tending to show that the truth of reincarnation, karma, and the 


PREFACE. 


11 


reinvestiture of a grand Llama in the esoteric philosophy cannot 
at all be correct or true, because I, H. P. Blavatsky, was or not in 
India at the times when I have said that I was, or that it was so 
said by my colleagues; that, because I at once upheld Spiritism 
and made it a weapon to subdue and eradicate sectarian bigotry 
and creedal dogma, and at the same time exposed its many falla¬ 
cies to those who were too advanced to longer require its limited 
phenomena, or to avoid its factual absence of philosophy, I was 
guilty of paradoxical tergiversation and unreliable in all departments 
of life and daily association, upon the principle that Falsus in 
uno , falsus in omnium. 

I made of my life a consistent effort to help mankind, and I 
never considered that I was free from the blemishes which are part 
and parcel of all human embodiments; it is true that I was not 
born with the full understanding of “ Masters ” and the esoteric 
side of philosophy that I acquired as I wended my weary way 
through hecatombs of blatant intellectual pretenders; it is true 
that I learned as I went and studied where knowledge lay, not 
always where the foolish and misled world-seekers look for it, but 
gathered from sources which are even now a secret with me, and 
will so remain until I find at least one devoted soul whom I can 
trust and reveal the esoteric gospel to. 

It therefore is no anomaly that during the years of my life I 
revised my findings and turned my face always to the new sun or 
the light of revelation as it came to me. It is not inconsistent that 
I assimilated ideas from Colonel Olcutt or Mr. Felt, founded two 
orders of Secret Brothers, one in Thibet or one in Luxor, who gave 
dissimilar exoteric teachings. I am no more responsible for this 
than I am for the fact that the men are in black skins in Africa 
and white in America. 

I should be revered for the fact that I brought the modern idea 
of “ Brothers ” to the western world at all, for up to that time there 
was believed to be no higher evidence of God’s wisdom embodied 
than the shoals of miserably inefficient ministers, priests, bishops, 
and others of devious and pious title, who, having no knowledge of 
their own, were compelled to make unlicensed use of their 
“ Master ” in order to hypnotize their deluded following, and there 
was no ideal higher than one of these theological abortions. 

At present, anyone who does not believe in the existence of the 
“ Masters” or the “ Mahatmas,” whether they be the “ Brothers 
of Luxor ” or the “ Brothers of Thibet,” are privileged to try to 
raise themselves to that high thaumaturgic state, and in their own 
person refute opposition and prove my statements; this would 


12 


PREFACE. 


result in far better ends than merely cavilling at my findings and 
sneering at my proofs. 

If they are unable to find a higher ideal than the one they seem 
so satisfied with, it is good evidence that they would make a poor 
leader for those who are seeking to become Atma, or find the high¬ 
est self in man, or to demonstrate that man has possibilities which 
transcend those of utility, respectability, intellect and the ordinary 
concomitants of the western ideal, which finds a bishop higher than 
God, and nothing between a common man and the state of heaven 
which comes at death, usually superinduced by failures to still 
further fleece and rob, upon the plans of the ecclesiastical hirelings, 
who merely preach ideals and mob anyone who has the temerity to 
apply them. 

I cannot bear greater testimony to the truth of Spirit phenomena 
than by stating the source from which this is emitted, for, acting 
with my Spirit friend, Mr. George Washington Newton Yost, whose 
last years of earth life were spent in a consistent endeavor to use 
the independent dictated writing of his typewriting machine to 
simplify and lengthen messages from the world of spirit existence, 
I have given this life by this means, and bear testimony to the fact 
of spirit communion and the value of the great mortal power of 
mediumship as a method of leading humanity within the confines 
of Divine Wisdom, and at the same time giving again my belief in 
the existence of a higher ideal, the self-illuminated Master, whose 
life service for the benefit of humanity gives him transcendental 
powers in the realm of intellect, mind and spirit, as far transcend¬ 
ing the state of mediumship as that development exceeds the petty 
spheres of those men in the ordinary ways of daily life, and who 
are dependent upon others for every service which is not within 
the mercenary plane of utility they are proficient in. 

In conclusion I will again state that I never abandoned my belief 
in Spiritism, in the permanent growth of Theosophy, and in the con¬ 
suming recrudescence of that modern wave of Occultism with which 
the entire world is now aflame; admittedly so, not by my pupils 
and vassals, but acknowledged by scientists, bigots, ministers, arch¬ 
bishops, and even the G. O. M., Mr. Gladstone, than whom to the 
vast body of sycophants there is no opinion higher. 

I also believe in the personal existence of the Masters and 
the Mahatmas, and know that they are behind the whole structure 
of the evolution of the Cosmic growth; that they do not achieve 
more astounding results, or make the universe better at one stroke, 
so that their prescience could be acknowledged, is because they work 
with the Great Law, and not to confound mankind with either their 


PREFACE. 


13 


power or their presence, for they can work much better if their ex¬ 
istence is actually disbelieved, and the bolts of force in the psychic 
fields are the more redoubtable if the source of energy is in dispute 
and actually doubted, for men do not welcome change, enlight¬ 
enment, education and freedom. There is more money in vice, 
ignorance and folly than in enlightenment, wisdom and interior vir¬ 
tue ; mankind instinctively set themselves against pure ideals and 
the iconoclasm born of the higher wisdom. 

It has been said by Tolstoi that if the principles of Christ were 
actually in force they would disintegrate the actual visible world 
with a force excelling dynamite, and purity would undermine the 
corruption of life incarnate. The “ Masters ” know humanity, and 
work in such manner that their efforts can neither be abrogated nor 
impugned. 

“ Know, Conqueror of Sins, once that a Sowanee hath cross’d the 
seventh Path, all Nature thrills with joyous awe and feels subdued. The 
silver star now twinkles out the news to the night blossoms, the streamlet 
to the pebbles ripples out the tale; dark ocean-waves will roar it to the 
rocks surf-bound, scent-laden breezes sing it to the vales, and stately pines 
mysteriously w r hisper : “ The Master has arisen, the Master cf the Day.” 
— “The Voice of the Silence,” page 65. 








POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER I. 

BIRTH. 

“Behold, oh Lanoo, the radiant child of the Two! It is Dangma 
alaya. She is the blazing divine Dragon of Wisdom.” —Book of Dzyan. 

I was born at Ekaterinoslow, a province or villayet in the south 
of Russia, in the year 1830. From my father’s family I became 
known to the World as the daughter of Colonel Peter Hahn, and 
my grandfather was General Alexis Hahn von Rotterstern Hahn, 
from Mechlinburg, Germany, who settled in Russia; from my 
mother’s family, the daughter of Helena Fadeef and granddaughter 
of Privy Councillor Andrew Fadeef and of the Princess Helena Dol- 
gorouky, widow of Nicephore Blavatsky, of the Province of Erivan, 
Caucasus. 

I was called, within my earliest recollection as a mortal being, 
Mile. Hahn, or von Hahn, or de Hahn. 

My full name became Mme. Helena Petrovna (Hahn) Blavat¬ 
sky, and it will no doubt interest some to know of my family con¬ 
nections, that it may be seen that in Russia and Europe I was not 
a person of ignoble descent nor obliged to go about the world as a 
nomad, for no other reason than to be abused by the “ Spiritists,” 
whose hatred I seem to have so unnecessarily incurred. 

The Von Hahn family is well known in Germany and Russia. 
The Counts von Hahn belong to an old Mechlinburg stock. My 
grandfather was a cousin of Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn, the famous 
authoress, with whose writings England is well acquainted. Set¬ 
tling in Russia, he died in its service a full general. He was mar¬ 
ried to the Countess Proebstin, who, after his death, married 
Nicholas Wassiltchikof, the brother of the famous prince of that 
name. My father left the military service with the rank of a 
colonel after long and arduous service, which was recognized by 
the government with its fitting decoration and titles. On my 
mother’s side I am the daughter of Princess Dolgorouky, with whose 
death the elder line of the family became extinct in Russia. Thus 
my maternal ancestors belong to the oldest families of the Empire, 
since they are the direct descendants of the Prince or Grand Duke 
Rurik, the first ruler called to govern Russia. Several ladies of that 
family belonged to the imperial house, becoming czarinas by mar¬ 
riage, for a Princess Dolgorouka (Maria Nikitishna) had been mar- 



1G 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


ried to the grandfather of Peter the Great, the Czar Michael 
Federovitch, the first reigning Romanoff; another, the Princess 
Catherine Alexeevna, was on the eve of her marriage with Czar 
Peter the II., when he died suddenly before the ceremony. 

The strangest fatalities seem always to have persecuted my fam¬ 
ily in connection with England, but for the recital of these I will 
refer the reader to “ Incidents ” in my life, by A. P. Sinnett. 

The year of my birth was fatally and peculiarly ominous for 
Russia, as for all Europe; there was the visit of the cholera, which 
came as a horrible plague that killed off the inhabitants of nearly 
every town of the continent; the largest plantations failed in their 
crops, and the government was compelled to turn to its wealthy 
aristocrats to save the treasury from the depletions caused by pre¬ 
vious wars and events. 

In my family about the moment of my birth, as I was so often 
told by my sister, occurred quite a number of deaths, and I seemed 
to come into the world amid coffins and desolation, and here I may 
be permitted to quote from the family records as the most authen¬ 
tic and reliable source of facts about this interesting period of my 
life, and which is even now as a spirit, a dim skanda or item of 
recollection: 

“ My father was in the army, yet in the night between July 30 
and 31 I came into the exterior world incarnate, physically weak 
and apparently but little of the mortal I afterward appeared. I 
was shocked by the effort, and a hurried baptism was resorted to 
lest I should die with the burden of original sin upon my soul. 
The ceremony of baptism in ‘ orthodox ’ Russia is attended with 
the ceremonial of lighted tapers and ‘ pairs of god-mothers and 
god-fathers,’ every one of the guests and actors being supplied 
with consecrated wax candles which are elevated and lowered, and 
being extinguished and relighted during the varied ceremonials; 
woe, indeed, if one should fall or suffer to ignite any substance 
during the service, for instantly the whole household would repair 
to the sick chamber, where they would watch the mother with 
frantic gaze, knowing full well that she or the child would emit the 
spirit before the day dawned. 

“ There is no doubt but that I obtained my initial horror of the 
whole structure of orthodox religion from this and other domestic 
incidents, for I was tortured with the full measure of its inquisito¬ 
rial details throughout my childhood, and revolted constantly from 
the senseless superstitions which were the foundations of spiritual 
faith with all my family, and had been, with pre-natal severity, back 
into the early centuries of the Christian calendars. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


17 


“ During the baptismal rite no one is allowed to sit as they may 
in the Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths, but stand with 
uncovered heads, the Greek religion insisting upon this with rigor, 
because of the idea that the dove of divine transubstantiation 
might become a nimbus or oriole around the head of some favorite 
of deity, and thus become a miracle, giving that family to anticipate 
that the member would live under the protection of some favored 
ancestor or of the Holy Spirit itself. 

“ The room selected for the ceremony was not larger than 
the crowd of devotees selected to bear witness to the event. 
Behind the priest officiating in the centre of the room with his 
assistants in their golden robes and long hair, stood the three pairs 
of sponsors and the whole household of serfs, vassals, kutais, etc. 

“ The ceremony was nearing its close. The sponsors were just 
in the act of renouncing the Evil One and his deeds — a renuncia¬ 
tion emphasized in the Greek church by thrice spitting upon the 
invisible enemy — when a little relative, a child, toying with her 
lighted taper at the feet of the crowd, accidentally, or in a moment 
of predestined forgotfulness, set fire to the long flowing robes of 
the priest and resulting in a conflagration immediate and severe, 
resulting in the burning of the old priest and several persons. 

“ Upon examination my mother was found comfortable and 
unhurt, whereupon the bad omen was reflected upon me, and the 
future Madame Blavatsky, on account of the superstitious beliefs of 
orthodox Russia, was doomed from that day in the eyes of the 
entire town to an eventful life, full of vicissitude and trouble. 

As a compensation for this unlucky event I became the pet of 
my near relatives, and in my early girlhood became imperious, bold 
and thoroughly self-reliant, and knew no other authority than that of 
my own whims and will. 

While yet a child, and before my frame was able to endure more 
than the details of youth, I was found at a party of children to come 
in at an auspicious time as a seventh guest, and this became known 
by the nursery, whose legends and lore gave it the name or untrans¬ 
latable term of Sedmitchkas, meaning one connected with number 
seven; in my particular case referring to my having been born on 
the seventh month of the year, on the night between the 30th and 
31st of July, — days so conspicuous in Russia in the traditions of 
popular beliefs with regard to witches, scolas, elemental, and the 
hoard of creatures which inhabit the subliminal world, and give their 
activity to the mental spheres of the ones who are their counterpart. 

This afterwards was often referred to by my family as being the 
Seven Spirits of Rebellion, for it was pretty generally known that 


18 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


it was only necessary to forbid me doing a thing to have me at 
once do it, no matter what the consequences, and my nurses were 
changed often, and the governesses of other countries brought, but 
to no purpose. In the army and among the soldiers, in the barracks 
as I often was with my relatives, I became hardened in tempera¬ 
ment, and a very cossack at heart; it is to be wondered at that I 
did not go further in my bursts of passion than I did, for within my 
own nature I certainly knew my own feelings best and what I re¬ 
quired as a child as well as in later years, and fully thought of the 
grave mistake of guardians who, knowing but little of the interior 
necessities of the young, or mistaking their outer lack of develop¬ 
ment as an indication of inner incipiency, think that their own often 
foolish ideas are better for one than their own. 

I wish to say here, for the benefit of the young, that the interior 
nature of children contains as much knowledge, and often of a far 
superior kind, than the years of experience give their parents or 
guardians. Children are the substance of their ancestors, and con¬ 
tain all the wisdom, power, knowledge and ideality which is the fam¬ 
ily portion up to the hour of birth; it may be latent but it is there, 
and so the outer frame is regarded as an indication of what the in¬ 
ner mind is, but no greater mistake could be made ; and being born 
with the inner sight firmly developed, which was lacking in my 
parents and nurses, I instantly knew as a child what they would 
never know; it was not likely then that I could submit to what I saw 
was inherently wrong, that I could tamely brook insults given to me 
as being a child, when I was sensitive to their nature and knew as 
a spirit would the true natures of my surroundings in persons and 
things, understood the hypocrite at sight, and could foresee the 
penalties and rebukes of acts upon the part of my superiors in 
physical size merely, which made me the wilder and more ferocious 
as I realized the impossibility of having my opinion accepted. 

I was as a good friend who could not make her wishes known, 
and I saw ruin and calamity follow certain conduct when I could 
hardly articulate, and as a child cried often because of my lack of 
power and my prescience of interior vision. This element of my 
nature also gave me great trouble in all the years of my life, for I was 
brought into the troubles of my life mainly through the incoherency, 
incipiency and lacking clairvoyance of my associates; for had I been 
gifted with the power to have my ways accepted by those whom I 
trusted, I would have averted all my injuries, all my sorrows, or so 
it seems to me now, and I know that one should be careful about 
the karma of their colleagues, the destiny which shrouds places and 
enfolds inanimate things. But of all this later on I will expatiate. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


19 


There are few anecdotes of childhood days which have not 
already been given to the public in the incidents of my life, by my 
sister and others, but this I may relate, if for no other purpose than 
to refute the mis-statements of my calumniators and cacophonous 
adversaries: 

When I was having my seventh birthday party, I was found in 
company with a tall man of dark skin and with a long dark beard. 
He was dressed in a most noticeable manner, too, which was re¬ 
markable in our country with its diversified costumes of the peasant 
class and the peculiar mixtures of the various servants’ regalia. I 
was sharply questioned about him, and it was never discovered where 
he came from or vanished to, for I well remember that he told me 
the first thing which gave my nature its central overwhelming im¬ 
pulse, and the message which he imparted was of such a peculiar 
kind that even as a child it was impossible to extract from me any 
intelligible explanations about it. I was standing talking and laugh¬ 
ing with one of my young girl companions, whose father was also in 
the army, and we were discussing the matter of soldiers and their 
ways, for it was no uncommon thing for us to be repeatedly kissed 
by some of the higher officers, a matter which occasioned me the 
greatest repugnance, even at that time ; while talking my friend said, 
“ there is one of the schukdas,” meaning the class of men who fol¬ 
low the army around for the purpose of loaning to the soldiers 
money to advance to their families, or to purchase trifles of tobacco. 
I turning saw the one who has had so much influence over my life 
that it is most important to state that it began at this time, and was 
not, as has been said by some of my critics, assimilated from Colonel 
Olcott and Mr. Felt, or any others. This was my first meeting with 
the Astral form of my Master, the Thibetan Adept, and it was from 
him that I first learned of my mission in the world, its importance 
in cosmic events, and the methods by which I would be helped over 
the rough places and carried through great difficulties. “ Master ’» 
did not stay long this time, but one of the first remarks which he 
made was that I should have a way to call him, or one of the 
shabarons, at will when in distress; and that this may not seem to 
be astonishing in one so young, I may say that I had for days been 
telling my young companions about the visit of a man whom I was 
expecting from the “ sky,” who would come in company with the 
domovoy (house goblin) and with the spirits of my ancestors give 
me a power over my enemies; I was also put upon my guard with 
reference to some of my actions, and a solicitude for me and ac¬ 
quaintance was so evidently shown in many ways which I, with an 
unusual interior consciousness, interpreted and understood, by these 


20 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


men and their chelas and shabarons, that it would be absurd to say 
that I assimilated their existence from anyone, when I knew of them 
perfectly from the age of seven. I was under the tuition, protection 
and guidance of these Essenes from the moment of birth, and as I 
now know was incarnate, by especial sequence, under planetary law. 

At this interview with my “ Master ” he gave me an amulet and 
some fine grass, which when burned gave me power over the ele¬ 
mentary life, and made the Roussalka, domovoys, gnomes, sylphs, 
and undines obey and protect me. 

It is related about me that I had a faculty of telling the most 
interesting fancies as a mere child, and as I grew onward and upward 
my knowledge became more clear and was imbibed by friend, ser¬ 
vant, family and foe alike. 

I was a great reader later on, and such books as “ Kashtey the 
Immortal,” the “Grey Wolf,” “Ivan Zarewitch,” the wicked magi¬ 
cian travelling in the air in a self moving sieve; or those of 
Melletressa, the fair princess, shut up in a dungeon until the 
zarewitch unlocks its prison doors with a gold key and liberates her, 
and especially a volume known as “ Solomon’s Wisdom,” filled with 
all anecdote of legend, myth, and that precious folk-lore with 
which my country is famous. I was thus, in the early days of 
extreme childhood, a seeker after that arcane knowledge which is 
the priceless boon of mankind and would transcend the ordinary 
life as the moon in its pale, silvery radiance surpasses a common 
rush light. 

A quite young child is not a morally responsible being; the 
organism has not attained a development in which the moral sense 
of the true entity can act through the brain of the physical and 
direct physical external acts. Sometimes a young child is marked 
out as in process of becoming the efficient habitat of the entity or 
soul that has commenced to function through its organism; and, 
therefore, if you can conceive that there are in the world living 
men,— Adepts in the direction of forces on the higher planes of 
nature with which physical science is only beginning to recog¬ 
nize,— one might readily understand the occult relations that exist 
between them and a child in process of growing up and gradually 
taking into itself a soul that such Adepts are in relations with 
already . 

This is the beginning of a plan of unconscious metempsechosis, 
or soul transference, which is but little known, and upon which I 
might discourse at length, but at present will only resume the story 
of my life. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


21 


I paid the greatest attention to the study of the languages and at 
times was somewhat proficient in all but the accent, and this con¬ 
tinued to bother me greatty, and I was never wholly certain about 
the English; it seemed the most absurd tongue, for it made use of 
the same words to represent different thoughts, and, in common 
with all foreigners, this continued to be a source of difficulty with 
me, but more noticeable at this time of my life than after, when 
travel and association removed some of it and made the balance 
less noticeable. 

Looking at my childhood from a psychological standpoint, I was 
in the midst of the usual accompaniments of mediumship and its 
phenomena, and also under the visible observation of the occult 
authorities and occasional guardianship, to whose service my life 
became dedicated, and in whose company and ranks I am privi¬ 
leged to stand, embodied or as a spiritual intelligence. 

I visited the large cities of the continent with my father, and often 
gave him much trouble by my impulsive conduct, but it arose from 
my imperious feeling of power, a fact which I could not remove or 
abrogate even in my girlish days, and was due as much to the 
knowledge of a previous state of life and being connected in my 
present existence with other individuals as a member of a powerful 
occult fraternity, which I tried to illustrate during every day of my 
life to all who would intelligently consider the subject. 

Whether I did this as being with spirits or incarnate men, was 
in no sense a paradox or due to misleading tendencies, but because 
of the personal bias of the one who I was associated with; for bear 
in mind that I was as one among strangers, and could only make 
my dress as I had the cloth. 

To those who believed in spirits, I was obliged to adapt myself 
to their mental inclinations and requirements, and I gave as I was 
permitted by the recipient; but I state that I was as aware in my 
earliest years of the support and power of “ The Brothers ” as at 
any time in my eventful career, and had no reason or cause to 
assimilate the idea from Olcott or anyone. 

Much of my brooding was due to the observable relations which 
I saw assumed between the sexes in matrimony, and I wondered 
how I could accommodate myself to it as I heard it spoken of and 
discoursed upon; this gave me much concern, for reasons which I 
will in the following pages relate, and pass on from childhood to 
the maturing years of the incarnate body the soul was serenely 
awaiting in the silence of the night. 


22 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER II. 

FAILURE IN MATRIMONY AND CHELASHIP. 

A faint far horn was blown — I listened — and the hollow North grew 
thunderous and sweet with sound ! 

From vaulted caves of ice, where the lone sea boomed, wild echoes of 
voices sprang. 

Voices, everywhere voices; snarls of vengeance, shouts of defiance, wails 
of anguish ; 

Women white-bodied and splendid, veiled with shining hair, lay faint on 
dead lovers’ breasts. 

Symphonies infinite, wide as despair, sad, deep as regret, arose from the 
pit; all waking moved and sang and fought again. 

In the golden rose-shot mist of lovers’ land, and wondering in horror 
strange as sweet, I cried : 

“ O dreams of Darkness, who hath conjured you to match me with a soul 
unmated, 

I, who fain would be alone, and yes, unloved, to follow out my life’s 
desire in paths of wisdom found? ” 

And in the dim light they turned and lifted their hands while the sea 
snarled on, and in a sound which whelmed me like an ocean s roar, 
thev'cried : “ The Master ! ”— Wagner. 

I began to realize what an obnoxious relation people were 
obliged to enfold themselves in that the race could proceed with its 
varied duties and establish throughout the generations the perfected 
life which was the need of creation and the use of procreation. I 
had as a girl come to the understanding of my sex and its relevant 
aspect, and among the events associated with my nurses I was con¬ 
stantly twitted with the statement that “ No one would marry me 
on account of my imperious will and inflammable temper,” and it 
was said that “ Even the plumeless raven would decline me for a 
wife.” (This was the title which in a moment of pique and sar¬ 
casm I adopted for General Blavatsky.) So, fired by this taunt, 
and to emphasize it, three days after it I made the old man pro¬ 
pose, and then I was so frightened at what I had done, — my pre¬ 
cipitation, my foolhardiness, — I sought to escape from his accept¬ 
ance of the offer; but the fatal step had been taken, and, when too 
late, I knew that I would be tied to a master whom I did not love 
and with whom I could never be happy; that while tied to him by 
the laws of my country hand and foot, and in the fear of offending 
those who would become responsible before society for me in that 
function, I held my peace and calmly watched the proceedings to 
enslave me in the most horrible of associations. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


23 


I was married, however, on the seventh of July, 1848, to Gen¬ 
eral Nicephore Blavatsky, who was vice-governor of the Province 
of Erivan, Caucasus. It was at the home of my grandmother and 
other relatives at Qjellallogly, a summer retreat among the beauti¬ 
ful mountains much frequented by the residents of Tiflis. 

My father was not present, he being away with the regiment 
in the interior of Russia; and although I besought him by letter 
to help me to become free from the entanglements of my rash 
conduct, it was a long time before I even heard from him, and it 
then was his opinion that I would be the better for a guardian, and 
the older he was the more likely that he could find in me an oppor¬ 
tunity to respond to his wants as an associate and companion. 

In any event, he would take no decided stand, and left it to 
those who were on the ground, and therefore more able to form an 
opinion as to the relative merits of the frequent family councils 
which were then being held and my future severely discussed. 

I consoled myself with the belief that I would find relief from 
family enslavement as a married woman, and could secure a more 
increased liberty of action than I would ever obtain as a maiden; 
and as I contemplated anyhow that I would abandon the whole lot 
of them and give myself to travel and adventure, I thought I might 
find some element of relief in the association of another than my 
family while it lasted. 

On the evening of the sixth day of July, 1848, I received a 
message from my “ Occult Lodge ” just as I was retiring to obtain 
much needed rest, and with a moon-lit beam of light the Astral 
messenger came floating towards me, hardening into the outer 
material form as it sought the magnetic aura of my receptive 
presence, and if there was no other reason for these posthumous 
memoirs, I should consider this one “ letter ” sufficient and an apo- 
dictic reply to all my cacophonous critics. 

The message in substance was as follows, and was impressed 
upon a flimsy page of paper in red colors, the whole thing being of 
little greater density than the atmosphere itself: 

“ Accept the events which give you the name and title needed; 
the elements of the mind and the integuments of the soul can only 
be inspired by the actual realities of external perception and fact. 
In the coming search you will find in the name of Blavatsky the 
key to your incarnate existence at this era, and this will reveal to 
you the quality of your mission in upa saka, for the real baptism 
(which is the esoteric meaning of the word Blavatsky) is the 
descent of the spirit into matter and its unfoldment in the new 
generation.” 


24 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


There were some other words, which are secret and related to 
my psychological polarity in the realm of sexlessness, and these I 
withhold at this time, but can give them to anyone to whom they 
belong as a vital issue in their life. 

I began to realize that I must not only marry, but escape from 
its entanglements by flight. I am sure that I became a perfectly 
unmanageable bride, and after quarrels innumerable and each fight¬ 
ing the other for impossible concessions, I finally took horse on my 
own account and rode to Tifiis on the way to my father, who 
arranged to meet me at Odessa. 

I began to think that my father might endeavor to deliver me 
anew into the hands of my husband and refasten the broken links 
of my nuptial bond, so I began to plan how I could escape them 
entirely and begin at once the adventurous life which I had long 
mentally resolved should be part at least of my career. I lost the 
steamer at Poti and avoided the escort who had been sent with me 
through Georgia. While walking along the quay at the edge of the 
harbor, I saw a small sailing vessel which attracted my fancy, and, 
never having been free before, I immediately conceived the idea 
of a voyage in her. I went aboard of her, and, by a liberal outlay 
of roubles, of which I had a plentiful supply at that time, I per¬ 
suaded the skipper and commander to agree to my plans. 

The craft was named the “ Commandatore,” and was booked first 
to Kertsch, then to Tgaganrogz in the Sea of Azof, and ultimately to 
Constantinople. 

I took passage to Kertsch for myself and servant, but only osten¬ 
sibly, and then sending the servant ashore upon some arbitrary 
errand, which existed only in my imagination, I caused the captain 
to sail for Tgaganrogz, as the vessel had business at that port, and 
afterwards returning to the Black Sea for Constantinople. 

I felt that now I had shaken myself free from the last restraints 
of my past life, relatives, friends, servants and nurses, of which my 
whole existence seemed to be full up to that time, and with it I cast 
all the traditions, religions, conventionalities, social follies and the 
entire concatenation of duties which seek to hold every one in the 
sphere of illusions and use the entire life for no other purpose than 
to repeat the empty events of our predecessors, and entirely abro¬ 
gate the possibility of originality, freshness, vigor or iridescent charm 
of individuality, which is the only element in life that can give 
man an ideality which will free him in the sphere of existence, and 
make of him aught but a mental idiot and slave. 

I at this time was sustained by the undines and water-fairies, and 
had a long conversation with the captain of the small craft upon 


HELENA PETEOVNA BLAVATSKY. 


25 


which I made the journey. I often think what he must have con¬ 
sidered me, in my freshness and total inexperience of men, as I 
betrayed in my every look and gesture my suburban and adolescent 
guile. 

We conversed about spirits of the dead and whether they ever 
came at a moment of peril when upon the deep sea, with guidance 
and counsel, and if they could communicate when they did come, 
the method and all other matters above the earth and under the sky, 
until I began to see that the captain entertained me with a rever¬ 
ence neither admirable nor safe, and it was only with the power of 
the steward that I escaped his subsequent persecutions. Our little 
voyage was full of adventures and incidents, but I will not stop to 
chronicle them. The harbor constabulary came aboard on our ar¬ 
rival at Tgaganrogz, and it had to be so managed that my presence 
would not be suspected; while the cabin boy hid among the coals 
I borrowed his personality, and was stowed away among some bed¬ 
ding on pretence of sickness. Again when the vessel arrived at 
Constantinople there were a series of further embarrassments, and 
as a result I was obliged to be taken ashore most inopportunely, in 
a caique, by the steward, who delivered me to the care of a Russian 
lady whom I had an intimacy with, the good Countess Calnoroysky, 
and with her I made quite a stay, traveling through many countries 
and under the stars of many constellations. 

I communicated privately with my father and had his consent to 
a variable programme of foreign travel, so that it cannot be said that 
I was a thorough renegade, afar from the parental roof. I knew 
that General Blavatsky tried for a divorce and separation, but this 
could only please me, and my father, realizing that it would be 
impossible to resume the broken line of my married life, even if my 
husband would consent to such a course if I myself would, kept me 
supplied with money, and was impervious to solicitations as to my 
whereabouts and subsequent movements. It was a good ten years 
before I again saw any of my relatives, and my resistless eagerness 
for travel and the delight of fresh acquisition of knowledge, the in¬ 
spiration coming from new scenes and intimacy with unknown peo¬ 
ple, carried me to every part of the world; there is no published 
account of my experiences and I have sought to avoid giving any, 
but will now relate some of them, that it will be known that I have 
indeed returned from the dead to give the truth and establish the 
fact of intercourse between the two worlds of existence. 

I was wandering one day upon the boulevard in Paris, near the 
church of the Madeleine, entirely alone, when a man approached 
and thrust into my hand a paper containing an account of a famous 


26 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


mesmerist and medium who was receiving visitors upon the Boule¬ 
vard Montmartre, or near there. He was the celebrite known as 
Cagliostre, or so nicknamed after his predecessor, and was an adept 
of the black magic stripe; but at that time I did not know the dif¬ 
ference, and the intente appealed to me as much as a far superior 
wisdom would have done. At a later hour I was enabled to slip the 
attendent given to me by the countess I was stopping with and 
made him a visit, and made my introductory bow to the first shrine 
where magique was practiced, Mantramic power unfurled, and the 
elementary hosts invited with their brood of dugpas to create the 
will of the Aspirant and devotee. 

I well remember how vivid my sight in the Astral world became 
at this time, and I saw events and personages as clear as though 
they stood before me in the flesh. 

This master was anxious that I should remain under his guid¬ 
ance, and, discovering in me the quality of the impressive lucide or 
sensitive, tried to hold me in his power; but no chains were ever 
forged at that time that could hope to hold me a prisoner, and after 
doing some experiments and finding the beginning of the science 
of spiritistic and mediumistic phenomena dawning within my own 
person, I fled precipitately to London, and at the Hotel Mivart, 

in company with the Countess B-, passed some time in strict 

seclusion, and after she left London I remained there on Half-Moon 
Street, number 45, with the countess’s demoiselle de compagnie? 
and now had good opportunity to accept invitations from my own 
countrymen with whom I was already acquainted, or who were glad 
to befriend me. 

Before I quitted Paris I had many interviews with the dead at 
the morgue, where I was a frequent visitor, and each time that I 
wandered to the “Notre Dame” to see the greasy mass and the 
priests and chanteurs with heads like monkeys, I never failed to 
see the last finding of the Seine or the one who was murdered in 
the night,— lying upon the frozen slab, with the water trickling over 
them, inside the glass case at the city’s home for the dead. 

I made many visits to this famous synagogue of Notre Dame and 
its chamber of treasures, the outlying shrines, where there was always 
the full complement of postulants, beggars and thieves, and began 
my study of churchianity, that ecclesiastic paranoia which has stifled 
the mental growth of the ages and brought people to idiocy and 
suicide, to say nothing of other evils, throughout the centuries of its 
dark predominance, and in the name of a man who was the incarna¬ 
tion of simplicity, truth and natural living. 



HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


27 


Fancy his finding this monument of priestly stupidity where he 
taught divine love, a mass of precious stones, embroidered vestments, 
golden images and treasures of incalculable value, and outside starv¬ 
ing ones who were in the sanctuary — where bread was more scarce 
and as unobtainable as the treasures within, and peace was taught 
and given at each service with the blessing and turned into suffer¬ 
ing and dismay as it reached the beneficiaries, and yet no one 
“ kicked ” ; they took the lie at each service, the poor resigned and 
the rich self-complacent; and only once in a while in an age,— when 
enlivened by an avatar who comes to save suffering ones from this 
consuming peril of so-called religion, the poor starved fools rise in 
rebellion and shoot an archbishop as they would a wild animal, — 
does humanity betray even a smattering of common sense, but are 
plucked and robbed by these lying hirelings, working under forms of 
ceremony and ritual and the name of the Master, and turning their 
substance into the stone walls, treasure and varied truck of the 
church building, until they in a moment of want find that it is a 
religion of words, of proffered service and empty offerings, — that 
the final blessing is a mere matter of words, that the holy ceremony 
is to trifle still further with the supplicant and give nothing while 
taking everything, — and yet they still go and come with never 
varying constancy, and revile anyone as a devil who would expose 
this never-ending farce. The treasure here would feed Paris one 
year alone and the building house a host; it ought to be taken by 
the government and turned into a place for the poor to live, as well 
as every other one of these church buildings. The priests ought to 
be put in the army or at work and made to stop their mumbling 
creeds, which is a monotonous drivel and is an impediment in the 
future life and development of the nation. 

The street life and shops at this time afforded me much interest, 
and I loved to take long walks into the parks and among the trees of 
the dairy, where the great cows and other animals would come to 
me and give me a look of serious contemplation; they knew that I 
could be trusted and their souls could read in me a sympathy and 
love for their state and being. I made many friends here, and 
especially among those who were emancipated from tradition and 
the foolish superstitions of the Christian faith. 

I was able to satisfy my craving for strange and outlandish places 
and things, to travel with companions and persons thrown in my 
way, and at other times quite alone. Among my associations of this 
chance character was an American, who gave me the first idea I had 
of the North American Indians aside from that contracted by a 


28 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


perusal of Fennimore Cooper’s novels; and I then contemplated a 
visit to America as one of the possible things in the near future. 

But I must not avoid mention of my life in London, that sempi¬ 
ternal Necropolis where in fog and soot are buried half the time four 
millions of beings, in mortal life, in close physical contact and of 
every type from queen to the lowest and most abject subject. At 
this time it was only a cursory visit and gave no indication of its 
later significance, when, as leader of my own Occult society, I was 
sought and surrounded by crowds to get the teachings of “ Master,” 
and my own commentaries fought with and nearly vanquished by 
hosts of adversaries, mainly among my own family, who, having by 
familiarity breeded contempt, sought my ruin and their own prefer¬ 
ment ; but of this I will write later on. At present I was found 
daily within the vast rooms and recesses of the British Museum, 
peering over old manuscripts, into the tomb of Abbysinian kings and 
tracing psychometrically, from the unburied sculptures, images and 
statues, the real life of the peoples of those countries, and sought to 
establish in my memory the truth as found in the Akasas, or Astral 
light, about them and their doings. I met here one of the Shabarons 
or initiates, and for the whole time that I was in London we were 
inseparable in our times of study and reverie. He was then a man 
in seeming middle age, but whether an actual incarnation or a trans¬ 
fused individuality (by taking on another body) I could not say; it 
was a fact that he had the most advanced power over matter, and 
could remove articles or bestow them at will. His mission at that 
time was to deposit some relics of the post glacial period and also 
other emblems of phallic significance, besides holding a place within 
the inner recess for the chelas and debutantes in Occult lore to 
gather. 

We had long talks about the coming developments, and spiritism 
was a frequent subject with us. While he did not make much of its 
marvels, still he said that it was assured by their wishes to become 
a fact as an antidote to the titanic devotion to mere memories of 
Christ and the creedal poisons which were stifling the world. 

It was sanctioned by the Brothers and under their guidance, be¬ 
sides receiving their help and good wishes ; but its exoteric aspect 
was due to the ignorance of the world and the measure of truth 
which it was considered would become the opening wedge to the 
fuller revelation, and in this I was to assist with my mediumistic 
powers and become the visible agent of the “Brotherhood,” who 
could work the better by the protection of their absence. 

I was given more instruction in the facility of phenomena, its use, 
and cautioned about abusing it, and was made receptive to the re- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


2 ( J 


ceipt of precipitated instructions when other means of impressing 
me failed; also how to invoke the elementary power which was the 
basis of all the phenomena, the command of the beings of the inner 
sphere and their dangers in incipient use, and after much more 
association I lost my instructor to the outer vision, and soon my 
mind settled upon the trip to America as being in the natural order 
of my mission and work, and in the month of July of the year 1851 
I went in pursuit “ of the Red Indians of my imagination, to Can¬ 
ada,” as it is put by one of my friends (“ Incidents in the Life of 
Madame Blavatsky,” by A. P. Sinnett). 

I met some people one day with whom I was acquainted, and as 
they were about to sail for America I thought that it could not be 
better for me than to go with them. We made quite a party and 
took a vessel which sailed for the harbor of Boston, but while on the 
deep sea the captain changed the destination, and I found that we 
would land at the port of St. Johns, N.B., and from thence I left my 
associates and proceeded to Quebec and saw some Indians, but they 
were ruined by what is facetiously called civilization, and totally 
worthless for my purposes, as I wanted to find out about their 
“ ghost dances,” medicine men and all their most interesting cere¬ 
monies of natural invocation ; these events I found were almost obso¬ 
lete with them, and besides a drivelling priest of the Roman Cath¬ 
olic Church and a “ minister ” who was half starved with them, they 
had lost or buried all memory of their ancient faiths and beliefs, and 
were in a delightfully vague religious state. 

I was interested in these people, and found that they had pre¬ 
served one original trait, and that was the desire to take anything 
they could lay their hands upon. After some of them left I found 
that they had taken all that I had lying around, and especially a pair 
of boots which I greatly prized and which I could not replace in this 
outlying district. 

I saw plainly that the Red Indian of fact was totally dissimilar 
from my ideal, because in the process of time they had lost all of 
their natural associations and were rapidly becoming a cross between 
the natives indigenous to the soil as transplanted and some of their 
worst members of the tribe who had left for the dense forest, and it 
was certain death to approach them or their habitations. 

Wigwams had given place to wretched buildings, paths across 
the interminable forest had grown up with trees and weeds. The 
deer were hunted by men for gain, and the whole ensemble of the 
Red Indian had gone to the memory of men, and I saw that it was 
useless to attempt to gain any knowledge in this direction. 

I then attempted to come into close relations with the Mormons, 


30 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


who were then commencing to excite public attention; but they 
were having a fight with some of their less industrious neighbors, 
and the survivors of the battle were then streaming across the plains 
in search of a new abode. Mexico seemed a good country for mys¬ 
teries, and under stress of these disappointments, which were not, 
however, without their benefit, I invaded this inviting region, and, as 
I found later, at the risk of my life. 

In New Orleans I was so fortunate as to see the Mardi Gras, 
and the feast of Saint Andrew. Upon the occasion of the latter, 
with that strange opportunism of which I have been the beneficiary 
in my arcane studies, I made the acquaintance of a yellow woman 
who bore every trace of being a reincarnate Brahmin, and it was 
due to her that I studied the aspect of voodooism, that middle branch 
of black magic which has for its object the ever selfish desires of the 
embryo mystic upon the plane of Maya, or illusion. It was founded 
upon the same Mantramic plane as the Eastern, but its objects were 
related only to the personal preferment of the supplicant, and natu¬ 
rally this did not satisfy my aspirations; it would scarcely be worth 
my while to go to all the trouble of the work and follow the formulae 
merely for the purpose of obtaining the love of some one whom I did 
not want, or to conjure a small sum of money to secure a temporary 
ascendancy over a rival in some affair of the heart or business in 
which the sole result was self. So while I was under the patronage 
of my seeress and in her good graces, while she acknowledged that 
my faculties brought her an increased power, still there was nothing 
in unison to hold us together, and I assimilated all that she knew 
very quickly, and after a warning visit from my Guro, or occult 
guardian, in this vicinity (for they change their personality with 
each locality) I took up my pilgrimage and thence to Mexico through 
Texas, and upon mules and horse, through the wilds of the country 
in that part of the world, I managed to scratch along unscathed, 
through rough communities, savage as well as civilized, and guarded 
alone by the force of my own fearlessness and perfect indifference to 
all possible assault or other attack. 

I had by this time resolved to make no stay in this part of the 
country, and the reason for this was the mixed Astral condition aris¬ 
ing from the Roman Catholic ascendancy, which brought me under 
an antagonistic force, and defeated, abrogated and almost suspended 
my communications with the central lodge. 

A country is dominated so much by the spirits of the dead that, 
where they are tainted with a form of thought like the Roman Cath¬ 
olic, the air is charged with their magnetism, and a message sent 
by the overhead route is apt to be dissipated by these wily Jesuits; 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


31 


so I was careful to conceal my thoughts and as much as possible 
strive to maintain the appearance of one of their own people. In 
this way I became an incessant visitor at their masses and saw all 
the churches, of which Mexico is so full. Here it was that I saw a 
Jesus on the outside of one chapel dressed in green tights and a 
wild bull in full pursuit, thus mixing the pastime in the thoughts of 
the people with their idea of an immortal life and their redeemer. 

Such desolation as I here saw in the mental development of the 
inhabitants, and there was such an entire absence of intellectual 
vigor, that my heart sank to think that I was yet so far from the 
home of my Master and in a region where even in sleep my 
thoughts miscarried, and I could not maintain my usual Astral 
intercourse. I wrote to my friend whom I met in Germany and 
arranged at once for a visit to India; and with a Hindoo, whom 
God sent to me in this wilderness, we went to the West Indies and 
went over, via the Cape, to Ceylon, and then taking a sailing ship 
in preference, we went to Bombay, and I immediately separated 
from my companions and made my own way toward Thibet, intend¬ 
ing to go through Nepal or the pass of Djellighore. 

I was always so much now in request, because of the beginning 
of the phenomena, that loud sounds began to issue around me, 
and in many ways my company, in whom I reposed confidence, 
were acquainted with my power to make a source of communica¬ 
tion with the excarnate world, so that I was much worried by all 
of them, and it was with much difficulty I could get the time to 
arrange my own affairs; besides, various old men thought to make 
me their wife, as they said. Some of the women were mad after 
me, seeing in this force a way to come into prominence and gain 
some temporary advantage over their surroundings. In India this 
power became redoubled and I had to fight it off all the way 
through; it was for this reason that I thought of home again and 
to rid myself of my friends and this incessant solicitation; but the 
war of the Crimea began and interrupted all plans, and failing to 
get into Thibet on account of my inexperience and the great an¬ 
tipathy and arrogance of the English, as well as the hatred of the 
Maharajah, who at that time would not allow any Feringhy in his 
dominions, I returned, but after having penetrated further than 
any traveller before, and this was only accomplished by my assum¬ 
ing the costume of a Shamana and taking his stores_and tents. 

I went from Sro Naga in Kashmir to Leh, and then across the 
most impenetrable range of mountains in the world, rock, glacier 
and precipice, crevasse and terrible passes where there is only room 
for the feet and the body is out of perpendicular all the time. 


32 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Over the Zoji La Pass the coolies had to carry the baggage, and 
were it not for the caves and viharas (stores prepared by the nuns 
in their pilgrimages), I should have starved and frozen; still I had 
made the attempt and that gave me the satisfaction which I craved ; 
besides, I received orders now to try the countries of Japan and 
China and attempt to find in their vast ages of lore the Rosetta 
stone or the Rosicrucian principle, then my Vade Mecuum . 

This was a promise to me that it was the road from apprentice¬ 
ship to duty, and I went out again to America and travelled in the 
principal cities, now in the company of some people and again 
entirely alone, reaching San Francisco, passing Chicago, — then a 
small place and full of that indomitable energy which makes the 
average American a small volcano of tobacco, emitted in such 
quantities that it is a wonder they do not go dry and wither up. 
Never in my life did I see such chewing and spitting,— the whole 
place full of the nuisances, — and the worst of it was that those who 
made the laws offended the greater, when they themselves should 
have been tried and convicted of the most serious offense against 
public decency that I ever saw. 

I stayed around here and in Hawaii, Sandwich Islands, and in 
Honolulu a full two years, and then went to Tokio and resumed my 
pilgrimages in the land of the Satsuma, Nagasaki, and studied the 
arts from the Japanese standard, also the legends and all of the life 
which Arnold found so delicious and so aptly described in his pub¬ 
lished work still alive in your mortal world. 

I found here a new principle of perspective in painting, and the 
basic principle of the retina orbit or faculty of transcribing distance 
in a picture. 

This secret also gave me the clue to another one, that of the art 
of producing instantaneously a picture previously resolved from the 
Astral elements in space, and this is a faculty to this day with the 
priests in the sacred temples of Japan, and an incident just here 
may become of moment felicitously related. One day I was one 
of a party who were going to see an old temple where there was 
said to be some monks who had never seen the outside world in 
their entire lives. Desirous to learn in what manner Nature com¬ 
pensated them for their solitude and what form of science they 
practised — for all of these old religions give their votaries and high 
priests something to think of besides the horrors of eternal crucifix- 
on — I was promised to see a thought precipitation, which occurred 
in this way: Taking us into the temple reserved for strangers and 
just inside the sacred line, in our bare feet, the high priest took 
some paper from a kaka vase, and, holding it upon our heads, we 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


33 


were requested to think of some scene or picture; I instantly 
thought of my home in Russia, and when the paper was taken into 
the light there was pressed upon it in faint but perfectly formed 
lines the whole surroundings of my family’s estate, with each detail 
and as things were placed the day that the picture was taken, this 
being its most important feature; for if the picture was taken from 
my thoughts, what power gave it the character of the day it was 
given, brought it out as of that very day, and showed all the 
changes which had been made since I had left home and of which 
I had not even been apprised by letter? This could not have been 
in my mental sphere or copied but from the Astral light, giving 
especial prominence to a porch and pillars which had been placed 
before the port-cochere since I had left home. 

The architecture of Japan is of that light character to giv$ zest 
to one’s thoughts and lead the mind to gaity and joy. I remem¬ 
bered well how difficult it would be to give phenomena here to suit 
a psychical research society, who would never be able to stop cracks 
or to find a room sufficiently barren of crevice to stifle their useless 
and opaque suspicions, the whole idea being to secure open design 
and give free vent to air and light. At Tokio I met some friends, 
and passing the straits reached Calcutta, on my second visit to In¬ 
dia in the year 1856. Again I went to Lahore, and through Kash¬ 
mir to Leli in Ladahk, wandering about, drawn by one and another 
fancy, witnessing at times marvels and at others studying Sanscrit, 
Aryan legends and visiting temples, cemeteries, caves, valleys of the 
dead, and touring much in the character of the phlegmatic English. 
I again attempted to make the pass into Thibet, but finally, being 
instructed that I must go to Europe again to avoid the coming 
troubles of 1857, I sailed from Madras to Hamburg, passed some 
time with some soldiers of the German army whose companion I 
had previously been when in the male disguise in the army and 
navy, and from this time began to receive the notoriety which was 
destined to accompany me the balance of my career, and without 
which I could not have left my memory and design in the Occult 
field. 

I had changed my name so many times by this and other affairs 
that I really did not remember but vaguely who I was. Think of it: 
I had been male and female alternately as it suited my purposes 
and surroundings, I was changing my social status also in every 
place, and had begun to permit and solicit from my inner self a 
varying permanence in conduct which gave me much needed vari¬ 
ety and relief from monotony. 

My body seemed to become the repository for ever changing 


34 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


individualities, intelligences, powers; I was charged by different 
emotions and desires. Sometimes I thought one thing right and at 
another knew that it was totally wrong. I could not put my finger 
on myself and say that I was my father’s daughter or the son of 
anyone. The whole world became to me a myriad, varied and 
changeful place, full of methods, events and curriculum, entirely at 
variance with established usage and opposed in act to the very dog¬ 
mas it upheld. 

I became entirely free from myself and was able to live a hun¬ 
dred lives in the same era and in the same form, yet my own self 
was ever present and actively observant of the proceedure of each 
intelligence, its conduct and the details of its synchronous affinities 
in every day correspondence; for I found also a new problem at this 
time, and this it was: As each new ego possessed me at my good 
will, and I loaned them my body and movements to achieve their 
wish, they began the operation of their own destiny, or Karma, in¬ 
stead of my own, which was entirely abrogated or suspended during 
the time that they had the use of my organism. Thus, in Asia I 
was taken by maorientes and other forms of intelligence which had 
lived and passed into the aether. They brought me into contact 
with their own companions, literally dragged my body through in¬ 
credible events and achieved some work that they were meditating 
for aoens of time and accomplished by me, a total stranger, yet 
being received by those of their family and countrymen seemingly 
with a gleam of recollection, or at least with sufficient cordiality to 
enable the spirit to accomplish the wished for result; and this my 
own soul would study as it stood aside and watched the whole pro¬ 
ceedure, sometimes lasting for days at a time. In this way my entity 
has been invaded by soldiers, women of the street, brigands, states¬ 
men, patriots, priests, serfs, scholars and of all and every sort of in¬ 
telligence, each using for themselves the wished for opportunity, and 
in return giving me some good service in safe conduct or an alle¬ 
giance won from their own people by a spiritual feeling of fraternity 
when they were not acquainted with me at all, yet they felt the soul 
power and knew it as something they must recognize and assist. In 
this way I escaped the consequences of many a dilemma brought 
about by my intrepidity and fearlessness, which were in turn the 
result of my feeling that at the doubtful moment I would be carried 
safely over all manner of difficulty and through each incident of risk. 

I remember that I won a wager from a friend, who so well knew 
my power to impersonate almost any character. It was arranged 
for me to serve as a female waiter, to prove that the individuality of 
the place and sphere actually would take possession of me and give 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


35 


me the nerve to effect the fact. It was in one of the restaurants in 
Paris, I believe the one on the Faubourg St. Antoine, and I men¬ 
tion it because it will serve to show how the details of my wander¬ 
ings became obscure and dismal by the time that they reached my 
family and friends, which they did often by the superserviceable 
gossip of travelers whom I met and in other ways. My aunt wrote 
me a heartrending letter about my conduct in alien lands, but I had 
neither inclination nor time to attempt to explain. I can only say 
that they arose by reason of some such incident as the waiter story, 
and which was merely done as a wager and to prove a metaphysical 
theory. 

After spending some months at some of the lesser towns in 
France and Germany, I rejoined my family somewhere near Pskoff, 
in the northwest of Russia about 180 miles from St. Petersburg, and 
found them, as I left them, in the midst of a family wedding party; 
but the victim this time was not myself as formerly, and I could not 
but draw inferences and deductions at the silly sight. Still, I said 
nothing, but attempted to find rest from incessant wandering in the 
family home and at least enjoyed some good food, properly cooked, 
which was a great relief from all sorts of messes which I had to en¬ 
dure at the various pensiones throughout the breadth and length of 
all lands. 


36 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER III. 

MEDIUMSHIP IN RUSSIA. 

“ Stepp’d from the crowd a ghostly wight, 

In azure gown, with cincture white; 

His forehead bald, his head was bare, 

Down hung at length his yellow hair. 

Seem’d to me ne’er did limner paint 
So just an image of the Saint, 

Who propped the Virgin in her faint,— 

The loved Apostle John.” —“ Marmion.” 

“ The living power made free in him, that power which is himself, can 
raise the tabernacle of illusion high above himself, above the gods, and 
above great Brahm and Indra.”— i4 Voice of the Silence.” 

For a few days I settled down to a retired life, but under the in¬ 
fluence of my sisters and others I had to be continually seeing first 
one and then another of the old companions andfriends and resum¬ 
ing the trend of my former life, but with the difference that I found 
myself to be quite free and an endless source of wonderment to the 
inhabitants of that quiet place, who had heard so much of me and 
my career. 

I was altering a dress one day when the very floor trembled and 
shook violently, and I had occasion to say to those present that the 
kikimorey, or spooks, were active again — a statement that precipi¬ 
tated me into endless trouble and notoriety, for the people, being 
unacccustomed to such manifestations, immediately took the subject 
up and demanded to know all about it. The whole town was turned 
upside down in a few days and the bell to the house rang all the 
time. 

A truce to work. The hubbub was great indeed ; I could do no 
more at the dress, and my sister finished it while I was giving all 
my time to those who were coming to consult the spirits of the dead 
about mundane and spiritual things, giving advice and answering 
vexed questions. 

Alas for the quality of the feminine mind; here I learned to dis¬ 
regard it utterly. Such absurdities ! Women would bother me for 
secrets about men — mere nothings, trifles — and of course the ele¬ 
mental would fool them; this of course was considered my dishon¬ 
esty, and it made much fuss, I can assure you. 

My family were leading a very fashionable life, and the callers 
were of that nature that one would expect to have a little sense, but 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


37 


it was quite the opposite. Fancy they kept asking, “ But how do 
you do it, and what is it that raps?” or again, “But how can you 
so well guess people’s thoughts?” “ How could you know that I 
had thought this or that,” for indeed the sounds were not simple 
raps, but much more; they disclosed an extraordinary intelligence, 
disclosing the past as well as the future to those who were inclined 
to hold discourse with them through my efforts and medial service; 
they also showed the possibility of reading thoughts which were un¬ 
expressed, penetrating freely into the most secret recesses of the 
human mind and divulging past deeds and future intentions. 

All who were living in the house knew that strange things were 
taking place in it, for throughout the different rooms there were 
sounds, whisperings, mysterious and unexplained, and not only did 
they occur in my personal presence, but knocks were heard in every 
room and the furniture moved, the sounds came on the walls, the 
floor, the windows, sofas, cushions, clock, and gave forth a different 
vibration according to the matter struck upon, thus showing that 
they were no illusion or conjuring, but a contact with the article 
upon which the sound was made. 

I tried in every manner at first to conceal these facts and laughed 
at them, trying to make fun and avoid their solemn significance if 
possible. I was obliged to confess, however, to my sister’s inces¬ 
sant inquiries that these phenomena had never ceased since the 
early days of my infancy and youth. 

I could by the force of my own will increase the sounds and 
diminish them, or make them cease altogether, proving this at the 
time if necessary. Of course the people of Pskoff, like the rest of 
the world, had heard of the occurrence of Spiritism and its manifes¬ 
tations, and were informed of what then was occurring in the States 
and other parts of the world. There had been mediums in St. 
Petersburg, but the inhabitants of Pskoff, in their guileless retire¬ 
ment, had never witnessed before the rappings of the spirits, so- 
called, and were eager to come into the presence of the supersensual 
by my services and prompt willingness to oblige, although I utterly 
repudiated the source of the Occult refection as being dependent 
upon the spirits of the dead, or anything dead at all; for I well knew 
that the energy was from my own person, although it was outside of 
my physical frame, but consisted of my soul envelope animated by 
the events and occurrences in the Astral light, which I will more 
fully describe in another chapter. 

I was a mediator between the mortal beings and the other and 
varied powers of incarnate dyhan chohans, who would liberate the 
compound of magnetic energy and upon the service thus established 


38 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


came surely the names of the dead and events connected there¬ 
with ; but the power, while used to connect the world of the dead 
and the mortal, was not made by the spirit world, but rested under 
the control of the highest incarnate power, and does so yet, as I 
have always known, but others rushed to conclusions and had not 
the power to analyze the details. 

At this time my powers might be described as direct and per¬ 
fectly written and verbal answers to questions mentally asked. I 
gave prescriptions for disease, in Latin and other languages. Pri¬ 
vate matters, unknown to all but the interested party, were divulged, 
especially in the case of those who insulted me by alleging fraud. 
Lifting of the piano and placing fragile articles under the legs to 
show the varying density of weight and the suspension of the law of 
gravitation, I also could at this time fold a small piece of paper 
and enclose it in a part of my skirt and it would disappear, going 
to a place designated and be found there, no matter how far, if the 
currents were in good order. This latter fact was the one which 
interested me most, as I was able to thus get “Master” and come 
in rapport with his own individuality. Objects would be found in 
the room which had been brought from a distance, and others 
spirited away and taken no one knew where. 

The delicious sound of the Astral bell, however, used to evoke 
more wonder and brought to their feet all the skeptics, it was so 
wonderful and at the same time refined and subtle in its translu¬ 
cent melody. This faculty I had acquired from an old anchorite 
or Shamana in the grove of the Bodhisavat near the caves of the 
vultures in India. He taught me the invocation and the mantrams 
which were in the parallelogram of the essenes or esoteric theraputae. 

The sound would come anywhere in the room and float around 
amongst us all in every direction, thus refuting utterly the fancy or 
conjecture that it was under my dress or on my person —a trivial 
thought that could only occur to the merest driveller in actual per¬ 
ception. 

I can say that the bell was the signal between those who, being 
proficient in an organized Occult fraternity, were given its use to 
get the attention of a sought assistant to unite upon a necessary 
reciprocal event in magic or its corelatives. 

I may say hundreds, or more properly thousands, had heard this 
bell sound from the age of eighteen till within a short time when I 
became transposed to this sphere of existence, and now within a 
short time I will be able to come into rapport with some mortal 
who will have the sound given to them so as to estimate the fact 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


39 


of my association with them for the purpose of continuing and 
maintaining my life’s work in the metaphysical realm. 

One of the most inexplicable items in connection with the 
answers received through these channels was that they were often 
distorted and lacked the substance of direct fact, especially to those 
who expected infallible prophecies or available replies. Some were 
purposely distorted, and this was readily understood by me, but it 
was difficult to have them believe the truth. Where the questions 
required an answer, which, if given, the karma or that of their friends 
would be interfered with, there would be a diversified answer, equivo¬ 
cal and disingenuous; for it was not intended to give out anything 
that would impair the value of human reason or understanding, nor 
to anticipate the events of daily life about personal matters, but to 
evoke thought and prepare the ground for new ideas, becoming 
receptive to which the mind would open to the rays of divine truth 
and gradually the inner sight would receive the philosophy which 
could not have been understood if the phenomena had not given 
the aboriginal conception to the well-worn grooves of human thought. 

Thus it will be noticed, and not heretofore fully explained, why, 
if these powers can make replies, apodictic and omniscient, they 
use subterfuges and evasions or fail to reply at all when solicited 
and are profuse when unexpected or unsolicited. The answer is 
simple : They have not the purpose to enlighten anyone beyond 
the requirement of the hour or moment; they are designed merely 
to awaken thought, not supplement it, and, having given one proof 
of its infallibility, its duty is done, and the neophyte is left to 
imbibe, by analogy, inference, the balance. 

My father was the most skeptical person within the family circle, 
but after the incident of the immovable chess table and releasing 
it at will as I had done for them, he became enthused and debated 
less heatedly about the glory of Voltaire and Letharge, whose dis¬ 
ciple he was. 

The principle of the Astral body was thus no trick of dioptrics, 
the Astral bell and the other sounds no device of diaphanous mes¬ 
merism. The phenomena all pointed to the existence of other 
faculties and powers than those within the limits of exact science 
and the known possibilities of the human organism. 

I may copy now from a record the explanation of this power 
and faculty. I could see within my forehead the actual present 
thought of the person putting the questions, or a paler reflection of 
an event, a name, or whatever it was, in the past or future, as 
though hanging in a shadow world around the person, generally in 
the location of the head or below the arm-pit on the left side. I 


40 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


did this of my own power and never felt that any spirit helped me. 
It was an action entirely confined to my own will, more or less con¬ 
sciously exercised by me and fully premeditated and given to action. 

I had to interpret the thought of the querist, to remember it 
well after it had disappeared, watch the letters of the alphabet as 
they were read or pointed out, prepare the will current that had 
to produce the rap at the right moment, then have it strike at the 
right letter, the table or any other object chosen to be the vehicle 
of the sound or rap. All of this is a very difficult process, I can 
assure you. The bell came from the vicinity of my naval and was 
through the operation of the muscles of the abdomen, giving vitality 
to the Linga Shirirah, which would make a vibration upon the 
spund curves and produce a synthetic vibration upon the auric 
nerves; in this also the will was trained in concentration and it 
operated in connection with a law of the Mahatmas, who had 
evoked the elementals in this direction and harnessed them to the 
execution of their purposes. 

My father not only forgot his skepticism but became passionately 
fond of experimentation. He desired to restore the family chro¬ 
nology. Think of it! The genealogical tree lost in the night of 
the first crusades had to be restored, from its roots down to his day. 

The information was readily promised, and we were at work 
from morning to night. 

First, the legend of the Count von Rottenstern, the knight cru¬ 
sader, was given. The year, the month and the day on which a 
certain battle with the Saracens had been fought; and how, while 
sleeping in his tent, the knight crusader was awakened by the cry 
of a cock (Hahn) to find himself in time to kill instead of being 
stealthily killed by an enemy who had penetrated into his tent. For 
this feat the bird, true symbol of vigilance, was raised to the honor of 
being incorporated in the coat of arms of the Counts of Rotten- 
stern, who became from that time the Rottenstern von Rott Hahn, 
to branch off later into the Hahn-Hahn family and others. 

Then began a regular series of figures, dates of years and 
months, of hundreds of names by connection and side marriages, 
and a long line of descent from knight crusaders down to the 
Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn, my father’s cousin ; and my father’s fam¬ 
ily names and dates, as well as a mass of contemporary events 
which had taken place in connection with that family’s descending 
line, were given rapidly and without hesitation. Herodotus him¬ 
self, though endowed with a phenomenal memory, could never be 
equal to such a task. How, then, could I, who had since youth 
been on the coldest terms with simple arithmetic and history, be 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


41 


suspected of deliberate deceit in a work that necessitated the best 
chronological precision, the knowledge very often of the most unim¬ 
portant historical events, with their involved names and dates — all 
of which after.the most careful verification were found to be correct? 

My uncle also took an interest in this work; he was a high offi¬ 
cial in the general post-office at St. Petersburg, his ambition being 
to settle the title of count on his son; and over and over again he 
would, in his attempts to catch me in some historical or chronologi¬ 
cal inaccuracy, interrupt the regular flow of the raps and ask for in¬ 
formation about something which had nothing to do with the gene- 
alogy but was only some contemporaneous fact. 

This lasted for months. Never during that time were my invisible 
helpers found mistaken in any single instance; indeed not, for it 
was neither a “ spirit ” or “ spirits ” but the power of incarnate men 
who can draw before their eyes the picture of a book or manuscript 
wherever existing, and in case of need even that of any long for¬ 
gotten and unrecorded event; they can come into rapport with the 
names or shades of the fourth principle of the dead, or, in the case 
of a disincarnate ego who has attained to the state of Manichaenism 
or Buddhisatya, the Astral light is the storehouse and record of all 
things, and such secrets as are therein transcribed are readily access¬ 
ible by such men, for themselves or to assist the reliquae of the dead 
to give the message of consolation and the item of test of identity* 
which is so often done in the seance room. 

The most successful phenomena took place when we were alone, 
when no one cared to make experiments or suggest useless tests and 
when there was no one to convince or enlighten. 

We gave some time to an analysis of the forces at work, as they 
found, as I had told them, they had to be divided into several dis¬ 
tinct classes. 

While the lowest of the elementals produce most of the physical 
phenomena, the very highest among the agencies at work condes¬ 
cended but rarely to a communication or intercourse with strangers. 
The last named invisibles made themselves manifestly seen, felt and 
heard only in those moments when we were quite alone in the family, 
and when we were able to secure united harmony and quiet. 

I will attempt to describe a tournour of occurrence which did 
not take place for a party who came miles to witness something; 
for truth to say I was weary with the constant request for miracles, 
the thirst was so unquenchable, the appetite merely one of super¬ 
ficial curiosity, that I would not give myself except where it suited 
the purposes of my mission in establishing an inquiry for metaphysical 
research, and these investigators were rare indeed. 


42 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


One evening, as we were all in the dining room, there were loud 
chords upon the piano in the adjoining room, and which was closed 
and locked and so located that they could all see it from where they 
were through the large open doors. 

Then I commanded a creshendo of elementary power; my tobacco 
pouch, matches, pocket-handkerchief and other articles became 
ignited with the flame of life and motion and would come to me 
through the air visibly without the contact of any person. With a 
mighty rush of wind through the rooms the lights were extinguished, 
and upon making a light again all the heavy furniture in the room 
was overturned and in disorder and yet nothing was broken. After 
this we held a seance in regular order, and the table became animate 
with life and questions were asked and answered until a late hour. 

Now I give my method of the power: At first I was a physical 
medium of enormous psychological power, but, under the guidance 
of “ Master,” I was made to forget this dangerous gift, and every 
trace of it outside my own will was subdued and overcome. I had 
two distinct ways of producing phenomena; in one I was distinctly 
passive and gave freedom to the desires of the acting elementaries, 
and the other method, dealing with the spirits of the dead, was to 
enter the currents of their thoughts in a composed method and 
identify myself with them for the time being, and, guiding the raps 
myself, made them spell out that which I gathered from the currents, 
myself about them; and in doing this I found that I could come 
into rapport with some personages in devachan much easier than 
with others,— especially, reading of some one who had left the physi¬ 
cal plane of being, I often found myself in their sphere and not they 
in my external life; that is, I would go after them, not they coming 
to me ; and the list of deceased whom I followed about in the field 
of the subliminal consciousness was a lengthy one. 

My illness came now on me again and stopped for a long time 
these events and experiments. I had received a wound, made dur¬ 
ing some incantations by the sword of the ecclesiast, and it had the 
way of opening at unexpected times, when I suffered intense agony, 
convulsions and the trance state succeeding, lasted far into the 
moon, when it would suddenly heal and no trace of illness remained. 

In the spring of i860 I went away on a visit to my grandparents, 
whom I had not seen for a long time, and at Zadonsk I waited over 
for some much needed rest. This was a place of pilgrimage in 
Russia where the holy relics of St. Tihon are exposed to reverence. 

I well remember that one of the three popes of my country, the 
famous Isodore, whom I had known in my childhood days at Tiflis, 
was to be the celebrant priest at mass upon that occasion, and I 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


43 


attended the function with my sister. During service the old man 
recognized us, and invited us to visit him at the house of the arch¬ 
bishop. He received us with great kindness. Hardly had we 
reposed after our greetings, while in the drawing rooms of the Holy 
Metropolitan, than a terrible hubbub, noises, raps, loud and muffled, 
burst upon us all with a force which appalled even us who were quite 
used to them. Every article of furniture in the vast audience room 
cracked and thumped — from the great chandelier under the ceil¬ 
ing, each crystal drop and pendant of which seemed to become 
endowed with sentient life and self motion, down to the table, and 
under the very elbows of his holiness, who was leaning upon it. 

How confused and embarrassed I became and tried to make the 
usual fun of it, but his holiness, with his ecclesiastical habit of ratio¬ 
cination, was intensely interested, for he knew its peculiar signifi¬ 
cance as opening a fresh field of spirit inquiry. He offered to 
ask a mental question, and when he received the answer — precise 
and to the point as he wanted it to be — his highness was so over¬ 
come with amazement and felt so anxious and interested in the 
phenomena that he would not let us depart for three hours. At 
parting he said to me : “As for you, my daughter in heavenly grace, 
let not your heart be troubled by the gift that you are possessed of: 
do not avoid its obligations nor interrupt the sequence of its Occult 
investiture, neither permit it to become a source of misery to you 
hereafter. It was given to you in the sacredness of a mighty mis¬ 
sion to humanity, and will no doubt open the eyes of mankind to 
the existence of the life supernal and lift the veil which opposes the 
sight of external men to the visions of an immortal life in the vale 
of destiny beyond.” 

These were the authentic words of His Holiness Isadore, the 
Metropolitan of our orthodox Greek Church of Russia, to me upon that 
memorable occasion, and I merely mention it to show what opinion 
the church held as to the value of phenomena in thaumaturgical 
revelation ; for myself, I valued an archbishop no more than a serf, 
except for his valued intellectual status and the power of analogical 
analysis in the domain of natural religion. 

I could repeat numerous instances of the value to me with thou¬ 
sands of people in every part of the world this peculiar power be¬ 
came. I had been in every country and place and met all sorts of 
people. Under the inspiration of my possibilities in Occultism 
ordinary channels of information became supplemented with the 
secret stores of knowledge. I met strange individuals, and ordin¬ 
ary seeming ones laid aside their restraints and reserves and to me 
confided all manner of private information, brought me in contact 


44 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


with sought-for knowledge, and for the time, under the psychological 
effect of the manifested phenomena, I could mold to my will and 
hold them to my plans of effecting reforms in human thought when¬ 
ever I was giving my power to accomplish this end. 

How little you realize the immediate nearness of secret stores of 
knowledge ! The discoveries of powers latent in man are never 
made in social life, and yet you may be one of a company that in¬ 
cludes a Cagliostro or has an adept as a guest. How would you 
know it? They would not attempt to enlighten you, but would 
studiously refrain from the very subject that you would give all to 
hear. When the right one knocks the door is opened, and you 
might be in the same room with the Master himself and it would 
awaken no curiosity at all, for these personages know so well how 
to conceal their identity that to an uninitiated person their presence 
would not be discovered in their high relation to psychic powers, 
but they would see only that form of intelligence to which they w’ere 
entitled and accustomed. 

Naturally I thus had no thoughts for trifles like human love and 
marriage; all the events and details of ordinary existence lost their 
charm; in fact, they never had any for me. From the hour of my 
birth I lived in a world of my own and was entirely unknown even 
to my best friends, except in that character which they could digest 
and understand. This gave me a peculiar life, for on the one hand 
I knew so much and required such different diversion from ordin¬ 
ary people that I was secretive, fearing they would see in me a form 
of being that they could not understand, and I acted a personage 
for each one, giving them just what idea of me they could digest. 

When I was alone my interior life began and I would wander off 
in the Yogi state, when hours and days even passed as a moment of 
time, and in this supernal reverie I learned to hide myself and live 
with the beings upon the plane of existence whom I found there in 
the innerconsciousness. 

I had no regard for money, friends, country or the usual con¬ 
comitants of a mortal life. Wherever I was became my home, and 
I could always accomplish the feat of living and taking care of the 
mortal and physical necessities, for I could attract to me the money 
necessary for my simple wants; or, if I desired to accomplish an 
event that required cash, I would become possessed of the amount 
by an Occult formulae in the time required, but of this hereafter. 

Finally I became itinerant again and my nomadic nature asserted 
a predominance. I roamed around in Imeritia, Georgia and Min- 
grelia, throughout the Trans-Caucasian country and all along the 
coasts of the Black Sea. Here I met with the warlike, half-savage 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


45 


Apkhasians, the Imeretenes and the Mingrelians — the descendants 
of those ancient Greek peoples who came with Jason in search of 
the golden fleece, for, according to historical legend, it is the site 
of the archaic Colchide, and the river Rihon rolled at one time upon 
a bed of golden sand and over wavey-marked nuggets of solid gold. 
It was quite natural, therefore, that the princes and higher class 
peoples should view me as a witch, a magician. I met here those 
peculiar people who are mutilated in some of their functions to 
establish the ascendency of another set of emotions. It is not be¬ 
lieved by them that the destruction of the physical and outer form at 
once removes the blemish, but the mind having rejected the thought 
of which the physical part is the expression, and it having been 
actually removed, the ego in the course of time assumes its non¬ 
existence, and when re-embodied the skandas, being without mem¬ 
ory of the erasure, fail to evoke that form of illusion in that life, and 
the consequent development in other directions is correspondingly 
rapid; also in other magnetic ways there is a compensation, and 
several rounds of necessary incarnations are thus avoided. 

I passed much time with these sects and tried to immerse myself 
into their rites and ceremonies, but they are not favorable to the 
reception of an alien by their high priests, and when I saw that my 
presence was causing trouble I withdrew and looked elsewhere for 
my next duty and work. 


46 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER IV. 

INITIATION IN THIBET. 

“They ask us to teach them true Occultism, but they indifferently 
realize the tremendous difficulties in the way of imparting even the rudi¬ 
ments of it to those who have been trained in the familiar methods of 
materialistic philosophy and the dogma of physical science. They have 
so much of the one that they can but imperfectly comprehend the other, 
for a man can only think in his worn grooves of thought, and unless he 
has the inclination and courage to fill up these and make new ones for 
himself, he must perforce travel on the old lines.”— Koot Hoomi. 

I felt now the necessity of having some direct conversations with 
the high Shabaron of the outer community in which I was an initi¬ 
ate, and gave myself over to the thought of travel again in India, 
where at that time the geographical centre of the order lay and 
where my Guro was upon duty. I had been corresponding with 
him for some time and we had reached a point where it was imper¬ 
ative that I should come to the lodge and pass quite a long time, 
so I arranged my affairs and left home again for the East and the 
ridge-pole of the House of Aryan. 

I will give in this chapter the ideas and thoughts which we held 
in common among the Shabarons and chelas of my lodge so far as 
I can without betraying the work to the remark of the profane. 

I had to obtain a mastery over the denizens of the supermun¬ 
dane plane, arrange a new code of signals for the correspondence 
of the inner circuits, obtain the degree giving me the transit from 
the plane of apprenticeship to duty in the field of iconoclastic 
teaching and proselyting to the original truth of revealed religion, 
arrange for the affairs of the exoteric lodge which “ Master ” had 
ordered begun in the outer western world, and have a permit 
ordered to begin the investigation of the outbreak of modern Spirit¬ 
ism which had just begun then to irradiate the horizon of human 
thought, bringing its onsweeping march of new ideas and its 
supreme revelation in the world of phenomena. 

From Calcutta, about three days’ journey into the wild country 
among the hills of Ootamacund and around Culiagrimatra, where the 
snakes are so thick that they can swallow a man of full size with 
the greatest possible expedition, I wandered among the native 
tribes, seeing performing Yoghis, Sutras and the ordinary coolies, 
who, in the open air, give the surprising miracles of the present 
day. Finally I was spoken to by one of the chelas and ordered to 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


47 


repair to one of the great temples, where at sundown I mounted 
upon an elephant and was eye covered, travelled in the company 
of two old men for several days, during which time I fed only upon 
the juice of a fruit but little known among the English in India and 
ate of a nut which gave the strength of the best beef and other 
meats; in the cool of the evening I could feel the rapidly moving 
train and knew that we traversed great distances into the intermi¬ 
nable steppe or country of the unknown millions. 

In the course of three weeks we arrived at one of the outer 
stations, and here in the midst of the gigantic verdure and fruit 
trees was a temple of enormous size and utterly unknown to the 
foreign population, being guarded by elementals of prodigious 
power, and anyone coming near it with inharmonious thought 
would become immediately ill, and, if not removed at once to with¬ 
out the confines of its circle, would leave the body permanently in 
death. 

This temple was vast and unused by the orthordox religions; 
most of its structure was underground and at the entrance to a 
cave in extent much larger than the mammoth cave of Kentucky, 
to which there are four openings or natural outlets, each guarded 
by large caverns where wild beasts and snakes make their perma¬ 
nent home and through which the entire English army would not 
obtain access. 

The initiation is part symbolical and part real, and is the 
counterpart of what the initiate encounters in the outer world after 
the skandas are permeated by the lodge initiation in one of the 
temples of the Mahatmas. 

There are seven rites or degrees in this initiation, and are 
designed to rid the neophyte of the illusions upon the varied planes 
of matter that they may be the more free to attain in Yogi the state 
of Nirvana or a partial Bhikshu. 

I will give an account of the seven degrees as I am permitted, 
and in as simple a manner as is possible. At first the Aspirant is 
brought into the sphere of full illusion and given the greatest scope 
in extravagant living; every luxury is permitted and all manner of 
desire gratified as soon as thought. In this way the result of each 
act is seen and analyzed and the will tutored to lay aside the delu¬ 
sion, merely to obtain relief from its antithesis; gradually this is 
hastened by association with the mind of the Shabarons, who bring 
about a mental vision in which all conduct is clearly seen and its 
accompanying result. In time the neophyte purges the mind of 
desire, and although all manner of tests are given, he passes 
through them successfully and then becomes ready for the next. 


48 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Some of them are especially severe, and while undergoing the test 
of solitude and the one of extreme self-abnegation, the aspirants 
have been known to refuse the tests and were returned to the outer 
world, there to resume life and the duties of earth existence in 
whatever sphere of living they could secure; but they carry the 
power gained throughout each trial into the life, and through each 
successive incarnation and at each fitting moment, by the law of 
attraction, they can by mental aspiration merely, and the strong 
desire to will to them a return of the trial in which they formerly 
failed, bring it to them, and the details of the initiation will begin 
anywhere in the world and have the same effect as if undergone in 
the temple, but it must be done over again in the temple in one 
embodiment at least, and the rite established upon the records, of 
which a perfect copy is kept and is always open for reference in 
any age, being preserved throughout all time by the Akasic aether 
in the aura of each ego and a corresponding one in the tablets of 
the temple, which is in the custody of the Grand Master. 

The test of separation from all other men and family is a severe 
one, and I was especially tender in its requirements. I received 
from my Master a special form of hypnotic induction which helped 
me over this difficulty. While I loved my father I realized that 
each ego must stand upon its own requirements in the plan of 
personal purification and progress, and our best duty to our parents 
is to finish comformably to a divine plan the work of emancipation 
of the human will which they have made possible by the procrea¬ 
tive act of birth; otherwise to comply merely with copying their 
prerogatives in development is to atrophy their as well as your 
own possibilities. But as they share in your emancipation in spirit¬ 
ual development, it is pre-eminently the duty of a child to attempt 
the emancipation of the line of descent from the delusion and ter¬ 
rors upon the plane of re-embodiment and frequent rebirth in the 
vale of illusion. 

I had no difficulty in the plane of money, which is the great 
stumbling block in the way of the chelas; another is the one of sex 
association and the assimilation of magnetic polarities, in the affini¬ 
ties of anthropogenisis ; being born sexless and psychopathically neg¬ 
ative, I gained rapid advancement, and was soon in the self-imposed 
retreat of the higher discipline. Here, indeed, I suffered, for I was 
in hereditary toils which I was obliged to subdue and avoid. The 
waters of Lethe were washing away the mental integuments, and as 
day after day passed in the grand cloisters and amidst a silence 
which was sacred and profound, the ego became released from the 
enfranchisements of ordinary being, and the sixth and seventh prin- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


49 


ciples alone lived and were not gainsaid by the lower principles that 
obtain full control of the individuality in the everyday life. 

No progress can be gained here while any taint of desire is left 
in the ego, and the tests are naturally imposed after each plane of 
development has been finished. As soon as the Aspirants fail they 
are returned to ordinary life, as has been said, but they maintain a 
collateral affinity for the lodge and are chelas upon the plane which 
they have acquired, and must help both those above them and those 
who are still below them in the Brotherhood. 

I was left finally in the Cave of Death, where it is absolutely dark 
and full of poisonous reptiles; the bite of one means instant death. 
This is to test the desire for life in the human form, and rarely emerges 
from it one who ever returns to association with their fellow beings. 
The strain upon one who is not perfectly ready is severe, and after it 
the test of soul annihilation is put, which gives the title of Touhidi 
Nirvana. This enables the candidates to return to the Llamasary 
whenever they desire, and they need not return to human association 
except they wish, but are Bodhi from and after that supreme test. 

I am not able to describe what takes place at this interview, but 
can say that it is a dark cavern and only the voice is heard of One 
speaking, and then the place is rushed full of elementary life, and 
woe to him who is not pure in thought at this supreme moment, for 
the life alone is not lost but the soul is borne at once to a new planet, 
and the recollection and advancement gained is irretrievably lost, the 
very ego being dissipated and a new Manvantara must ensue before 
life can begin upon a new round. 

The man is made over entirely from the outer to the inner, by 
these forms of ceremonial magic acting directly upon the Manas, 
and is accorded a correspondence with those forms of thaumaturgic 
power that have their full significance in a life such as mine was to 
be. I made the distinct gain here of controlling the denizens of the 
subjective plane or state of life, and became their master, willing 
them to action and work rather than, as most media, being under 
and subject to their impetuous dialectics. 

The caverns of this temple are so vast and yet so constructed that 
one never comes into contact with another unless drawn together by 
some affinity or natural law. The Astral forms are almost as dense 
as the natural ones of these diaphanous Hierophants, and so readily 
does matter deliquese in this luminous aether that it is difficult to 
trace density in aught but your own will and thought. Except the 
walls and exterior landmarks, all is vague, evenescent, and dreamily 
in tone with the goddess Isis, whose dedicatory service is chanted 


50 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


by the waves of atmosphere as they breathe their undulations in the 
varied passages. 

Within one crypt I well remember the Altar of the Elephant, 
where, rising in the centre of the vaulted recess in the solid rock, is 
the hollow statue of a vast Leviathan, in which are passages through 
the limbs. Here is invoked by the incantation of thurgic rythm, 
the power to subdue riots, quell wars and bring to reason the spirit 
of confusion throughout the continents, and thus are men governed 
after the rage of elementary strife has run its course, by the magic 
of thought transferrence generated by those high in Divine law and 
love. 

I passed some time in the study of the laws governing the dis¬ 
integration of matter and its transportation to other places, and its 
return to the original shape and form in an Astral counterpart. This 
brought me to the knowledge of exact and definite sciences. I was 
obliged to familiarize myself with the facts of the post-glacial age 
and the flint deposits, which carry part of this phenomena to a final 
conclusion. 

The people of this age were proficients in this lost art, and to 
study its bearings and facts I was obliged to uncover from their time 
and life the exact status of the power from Astral observation and 
experiment, under the tuition of the Shabarons, who never give out 
any knowledge until the chela is upon the secret already from an 
inner intuition. 

This science is the treasure of the earliest ages of men; it was 
part of their ritual of life and was necessary for their preservation, in 
that they had no means to form or prepare implements for use in 
the chase and the protection from wild beasts, except the con¬ 
densation and materialization of fabric from the aether itself. The 
inference is that, in addition to the races of neolithic and palaeo¬ 
lithic men and beings, who carry one back to the period of the 
glacial age itself, there was a still earlier age and race, that of plateau 
or eolithic man, separated from palaeolithic or post-glacial human 
beings by the vast gulf of the period of extreme glacialism, when the 
Manvantara just begun had not uncovered to the beings of its time 
the power to invent and derive from the soil the elements of family 
necessities. 

The land occupied by the denizens of humanity in that remote 
age had lain either under ice or snow, or under a vast ocean of ice 
at one season and water at another, as the conditions which are sim¬ 
ilar to our summer and winter prevailed, although the time was im¬ 
measurably longer. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSIvY. 


51 


There are discoveries now made which verify these findings to 
some extent, and I may briefly refer to them. 

“As regards the geological discoveries of the Kent Plateau, in 
which the discoveries were made, there are some who do not hesi¬ 
tate to pronounce it contemporaneous with some part of the glacial 
period; and the outcome of study of some thousands of specimens 
of the flints and implements found there is the expression of a 
strong conviction that they were unshaped by the hand of man. 

“ They differ markedly, however, in size and form from the palae¬ 
olithic flint implements; none of them were apparently used as 
weapons; they seem to have been employed in domestic uses, for 
hammering, for breaking bones, for scraping skins, bones and sticks, 
or for trimming and squaring other stones for uses of their necessi¬ 
ties. 

“All this points to a very simple and primitive people, whose 
wants were few and which depended upon a regulation of natural law 
for a supply of materials to prosecute support, in which they were 
helped by the theurgies of their native religions or the help of their 
departed ancestors to so order the earth currents to supply them the 
curious nature formed implements which contributed to their ne¬ 
cessities and wants in the domestic requirements. 

“ They lived, perhaps, largely upon fruits and nuts, berries, roots 
and the animals of the air and birds which, tamed, came to them with¬ 
out the trouble of the chase or the details of being entrapped. 

“ The absence of large, massive implements is more noticeable, 
because the elephant, rhinoceros, bear, and various formidable car¬ 
nivora had appeared in their land and contested their occupancy of 
it, so that weapons of defense would seem to have been as much 
needed as in the subsequent palaeolithic period. Was the absence 
of such weapons due to lack of inventive skill, or absence of the 
physical power required for wielding them? The suggestion has 
been offered that the plateau or eolithic men may have been an 
arboreal race, too deficient in intelligence or too weak in point of 
physical strength to cope with their feral enemies, and therefore 
driven to seek shelter in the trees of the forest or refuge in the cav¬ 
erns of the soil. 

“ This is the manner of exact science in ratiocination about the 
past ages, always proceeding to reason from the known in one age 
to the unknown in another. 

“It is admitted that the implements were different and came 
through the use of the religious theurgies in which all primitive peo¬ 
ples are known to be admittedly rich and prolific, they depending 
upon Nature or the forces of the universe to protect and preserve 


52 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


them when the findings and inventions of artifice are unknown and 
undiscovered; to anyone seeking to discover the laws of this theurgy, 
this would seem enough to give the clue to the original and primor¬ 
dial methods. 

“ There is in the aether a storehouse of matter in solution which, 
under the recognized formulae, can become crystalized and fall into 
the boundary of the visible universe, in such shapes and forms as the 
mind recognizes and formulates by the need of the use to which 
implements are to be put. Nature recognizes the need of the prayer; 
and as the united will of the peoples at the times selected demands 
the fall of the flint, the deposit of the implements, or a strictly regu¬ 
lar fall of food or magnetic deposit, it is bound to occur. Thus the 
North American Indians, until a very late day, depended upon the 
arrow heads, the sharp pointed weapons of flint and the hammer 
and axe stones which they had in daily use among the religious tribes, 
and not those profane and degenerate allies of the half breeds which 
came to them after the ghost dance and the supplication of the 
Mantramic invocations, in which offerings of blood and human sacri¬ 
fices gave power and strength to the theurgic device. 

“ Science naturally fails in its deductions about the unknown in 
past ages, because of not considering that the primitive peoples had 
methods and ways which are utterly unknown in the mists of pres¬ 
ent generalizing.” 

It says further : “ If skeletons of eolithic men had been unearthed, 
definite conclusions could be drawn regarding their muscular and 
cerebral capacity. But no bones have been found, and, therefore, 
concerning their structure no positive knowledge can be obtained.” 

“ Now what folly looking for information about the unknown im¬ 
plement, the condensed flint, in the bones, or gathering knowledge 
about a man’s power and information by looking at a dried up brain 
when even a live brain gives no indication of the soul power with 
which it is connected; thus Science, unallied with a form of religion, 
fermenting with primitive truth and vigor, will ever helplessly grap¬ 
ple with all problems which are to be solved in a metaphysical man¬ 
ner, and finding itself rebuffed in conclusions, must draw upon itself 
the inevitable conclusion that there is no knowledge that it cannot 
solve, and being unsolvable does not exist.” 

Again Science says: “All traces of the frame of eolithic man 
have disappeared in the long roll of ages. How surely this would 
be brought about in permeable deposits is exemplified in the case of 
beds of gravel which originally consisted of insoluble silicious ele¬ 
ments mixed with pebbles of chalk and oolite, but in which the 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


53 


latter two calcareous elements have been dissolved out as utterly as 
if they had been lumps of sugar in a cup of hot water.” 

Here again Science looks for the traces of remains where there is 
nothing to be found, but carefully refrains from examining any and 
all evidence where traces and vast lumps would indicate the pre¬ 
servation not alone of the relics of the race, but their vast store of 
knowledge and religious power. 

And, to excuse itself in the failure, runs on thus: “ To fix the 
chronological date of palaeolithic or post-glacial man and that of his 
eolithic forerunner, we must begin by deciding when we will assume 
that the glacial period began and ended. Touching this point there 
has been much fluctuation of opinion. For a time geologists were 
led by the needs of the uniformitarians, in formulating a theory, to 
adopt an astronomical chronology which, after suggesting much high¬ 
er figures, concluded that the insetting of the glacial age took place 
240,000 years ago, and the end of the post-glacial period 80,000 
years ago. Another authority can find no warrant for this estimate 
in this geological resume; it denies the existence of any proof that 
palaeolithic man disappeared so long ago as 80,000 years, and that 
heolithic man has reigned throughout the long subsequent period. 
It assumes that palaeolithic or post-glacial man did not appear until 
20,000 to 30,000 years ago, and that his disappearance should not be 
put back further than 10,000 or 12,000 years from these times. The 
aeolithic man of the Kent Plateau is older, being separated from his 
palaeolithic successor by the breadth of the period of extreme gla- 
cialism. According to one authority this period lasted more than 
120,000 years, but another prefers an approximate estimate of 
15,000 to 25,000 years. The important thing is to recognize that 
the time needed for the advance and retreat of the great ice streams 
must have been long, and it is this which gives the measure of the 
interval between the newly discovered eolithic man and the previ¬ 
ously known palaeolithic races.” 

It will be seen that Science and her countless authorities differ 
so much that one is disposed to find fault with the whole method. 
Not finding out about the deposited flints and discovering the se¬ 
crets of the theurgy which gave these primitive races their implements 
from the atmosphere bodily, in materialized form, in answer to the 
supplicating Mantras, Science rushed off into a discussion about 
chronology and the disputes between authorities, leaving the main 
subject to settle itself with a point raised and the question unsolved. 

Not being able to find a new method to solve such a fact, it is 
unable to find its solution, and, after looking to bones and skeletons 


54 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


of brains, takes up the fresh dispute about years and leaves the pupil 
where he began. 

In the caverns of the underground temple I came into intercourse 
with the peoples of each age as they come before the Astral vision, 
and, in seeing the race, its customs, religion, laws and feudal opin¬ 
ions are also seen; thus undiscovered ways and forms of thought 
are to be seen by the clairvoyant and sensitive by coming in rapport 
with the subject matter of the vision. 

One distinct form of initiation is the discipline of the mind by 
what is now known as Stirpiculture, another is the form inculcated 
by the rig vedas, another different method and plan takes from the 
individual the mental filaments and replaces by induction that of 
one of the Grand Llamas, who performs a life of sacrifice in the skin 
or body of the chela, and he in return becomes invested with the 
virtues of the Hierophant by assimilation and as a twin recipient of 
knowledge rather than by the development of his own Manas. 

The precipitation of matter and the writing of messages is a study 
by itself and requires two within the battery, one to write and 
the other to receive. This form of communicating was also known 
among the post-glacial tribes, who, while not using letters, were 
able to communicate by signs and copying leaves to indicate the 
return of warm weather and the sign of birds to represent different 
thoughts, changing the species of birds or animals as the idea varied 
— as in intellectuation in modern times we use letters instead. 

These races had no paper or colors, but used the natural colors of 
the prismatic ray, which is within the composition of the aetheric 
fluid and which gives color to all within the confines of cosmos. 
To indicate at this hour the infinite variety of color which is and can 
be enumerated in Nature, I will copy from a contemporary an arti¬ 
cle arranged by one of the scientific class who has come near the 
confines of precipitation, and with a little more thought and inten¬ 
sity of will power could color any substance within the reach of his 
person merely by willing the color to come from the source which 
is held in the mind’s grasp. 

Does anyone realize how richly Nature is endowed with color 
and that it exists, within all elements of detail, in every sphere of the 
surrounding universe? 

To realize this I will enumerate this fact as follows: 

“ Nature, in her exquisite diversity of coloring, seems to have 
used her palette at random; seldom to have labelled uniformity of 
purposes with uniformity of tint. Viewed broadly, the land and the 
waters and the firmament above them seem drifting curtains, per¬ 
manent only in the impermanence of their hues. Seen more inti- 


HELENA PETEOVNA BLAVATSKY. 


55 


mately, color is definite enough, but seldom goes hand in hand with 
purpose. The naked rocks and fields lift themselves up in whites 
and slates, or in reds and brown, colored for the most part by min¬ 
erals accidentally present. The colors of jewels seldom are inher¬ 
ent in their structure; the sapphire and the ruby are crystals of 
alumina tinged with different and accidental oxide; the diamond 
itself may borrow sulphureous yellow from extraneous matter. Birds 
and beasts and insects flaunt through the world, streaked or spotted* 
plain or parti-colored, in every diverse hue, while no two kinds are 
alike and the nearest kin in blood and bone often the most sporadic 
in harmony of color. Flowers advertise their dainties in a million 
hues and mixtures, using every shade in Nature’s habiliments of 
color and can show myriad results by the blending of shades gathered 
from the great cosmic storehouse. 

“ But Nature, so capricious elsewhere, tinges the leaves of nearly 
every plant with green. From the tropical forests to the coldest 
plateaus, wherever plants are found to grow and survive, they cover 
the earth with a mantle of green. Even the microscopic plants 
that may be skimmed from the surface of the sea, and whose color 
is submerged in the blue of the waters, share in the uniformity. 

“ The leaves of the copper beach, the dainty browns and reds of 
some seaweeds are no exception; they are green in masquerade, 
overlaid by a domino or cover of other pigments. This green color* 
found in so large a part of the organic world, is due to the presence 
of a chemical substance, technically known as ‘ chlorophyll ’ leaf- 
green. 

“ Before the dawn in some warm night of summer let one shut off 
the light from a small area on the surface of a leaf by affixing an 
opaque disc, say of leather. When the light of another day has 
gone, the simplest chemical test will reveal that starch has been 
formed in abundance all over the leaf, except where the disc of 
leather has kept the chlorophyll in darkness. These two together, 
leaf-green and light, have the universal task of building up starch 
and pigments of matter, and their co-operation for this purpose is 
the foundation of the whole organic world. 

“All the moulds and funguses and all animals, in fact all life 
that has not leaf-green, are dependent upon life that has leaf-green; 
either directly upon vegetarian habits or feeding upon animals that 
themselves are vegetarian. 

“ This is the open secret of the entire world and cosmic universe, 
leaf-green and light, and little else can manufacture the universal 
food from water and carbonic acid, substances universally present. 

“World-famed results would accrue to anyone who would, with 


56 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


this for a basic principle, attempt to solve the immediate attraction 
of these two chemicals into one particle irradiated by the intellect 
into a message or a picture; the entire world beams and is over¬ 
flowing with color and varied shades of light and shadow, from the 
arrangement of which all writing and pictures are drawn. To com¬ 
pel from the aether the starch to gather into a filament, elastic 
enough to be seen and felt and pernament enough to carry the 
colors and pigments with which Nature abounds, is to have the se¬ 
cret of precipitation at hand. First the mind must feel the abound¬ 
ing resources of the supply of lights and shades of color and know 
intuitively from where the elementaries will draw the substance, 
then the will must order the fact, and an immediate result will ensue. 

“ This is a coming achievement of psychic science and will over¬ 
throw materialism at one blow.” 

Our enlightened instructor goes further in this manner, and his 
remarks almost lift the veil to the disclosure of the science of pre¬ 
cipitation, so that it is worthy to repeat his findings in his own 
words : “ Will no modern investigator synthesize for us chlorophyll, 
and by a stupendous achievement revolutionize the economy of the 
universe? In past ages, when chemical science was devoted to 
analysis, the artificial formation of an organic compound, or chem¬ 
ical, or mineral, would have been regarded as an unphilosophical 
dream and a mental vagary, a cephalic hypothesis, or scientific 
paranoia. 

“ But in these days, when organic chemists and investigators not 
only emulate Nature by making in the laboratory substances hitherto 
formed only by living protoplasm, but affront her with unnatural 
compounds, the synthesis of chlorophyll would indeed be a wonder 
but no prodigy.” 

I can safely say that this achievement has been within the grasp 
of Occult proficients in every age since the Rosicrucians brought 
the formulaes of modern magic to a full completion. The ancient 
Chaldeans studiously studied Nature, and found, by servilely copying 
her in her intricate achievements, that all manner of immediate 
chemicalization of matter could result by the united will and under¬ 
standing of the solutions of matter in the Akasic envelope of the 
world. 

I will quote further from my learned friend : “ In the matter of 
energy, the world lives and consumes far be)'ond its income. Its 
revenue is derived chiefly from that part of the radiant energy of 
sunlight that is captured by chlorophyll, and stored up in portable 
form by plants. In addition to such income, it is drawing upon 
capital largely, upon the savings of the past accumulated in the 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


57 


form of coal, oil, peat and the materials of commerce which save to 
the mortal world the energy of past ages of men. Population 
presses, the income is reaching its limit, the capital is disappearing. 
W ill the Occult chemist aid Nature by bringing to the world a more 
universal treasure of green or its equivalent ? Each inch that has 
access to air and water and sunlight, might capture the energy of 
sunlight at present reflected into space and make by it starches for 
foods, carbons for heat and light, and magnetism for the human 
system whereby the ills of men would dissappear into the vast vault 
of the decay. 

“The surface of the unvintageable sea, which contains more 
than enough substance for the maintainance of all men for all time, 
the barren plains and mountains, spread with the compound of the 
Occultist and reared with his knowledge and power in the confines 
of the unknown, might yield such a harvest for men that labor 
would cease, and, weaving from the surfaces of things the needs of 
the hour, man himself clad in chlorophyll, as he took the air in the 
sunlight, might imbibe without thought or labor almost all of his 
daily food, weave the implements of his necessities, create by the 
spoken word the fabrics of his desires and build for himself or 
fashion the earth already formed to his use in such shape as would 
compose all his necessities in comforts and luxury.” 

A dream like this may come true at any hour ! The miracle 
which can make a letter of the particles of the atmosphere, and, 
starch like, come into tangible issue, the Occult force which can 
create a picture from the aether, selecting the colors from the pig¬ 
ments of Nature by the knowledge of natural law, the preparation of 
the necessary vacuums and depositing it under the power of pri¬ 
mordial force, the magnetism which can come to the confines of the 
mortal world and produce forms of men and visible essences in 
tangible shapes, can mould life and its concomitants, avoid all 
labor, shape the destiny of nations, feed the multitudes, suspend 
the law of gravitation or interpose another and higher law to its 
neutralization, extend the privileges and favors of the atmosphere to 
the denizens of earth, overcome the vexed questions of the solar 
and other systems, produce equality where now there are so many 
systems of thought, and by the unifying of the universal will con¬ 
done the past mischiefs of the ages of mankind, and permit the 
natural order to return, to all species, which would settle all 
troubles which now beset the world at large and give rise to the 
seditions and disputes among the tribes of incarnate mortals. 

The land hunger, now the chief token of the struggle for exist¬ 
ence in nations or between nations, might be entirely abrogated, 


58 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


taxation cease, mutual good-will return and an age of that golden 
nature return among men that would become the long-prophesied 
Arcadia when, all nature in harmony, the planets themselves would 
return to a more uniform action, and Nature would fructify and in¬ 
crease in harmonious plenty. 

But this trouble removed, would human and mortals, released as 
no realization of socialist dreams would release them, devote their 
energies .to the conquest of new realms of thought, to the achieve¬ 
ment of an ordered and dignified comfort and luxury now impossible 
and impracticable ? Or would they plunge into a riot of the senses, 
and sink into the apathy of decay? It is ordered that man shall 
earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. This is in pursuance of 
high law which removes all other systems from man until, having 
paid the penalty of his consummate fall into matter, his spiritual 
nature shall again triumph and then the laws of the higher will inter¬ 
vene and the dreams of his debased state come to a profound realiz¬ 
ation. And these theories become in fact true and for all, and not as 
at present for the ones of the select high-priests who have alienated 
themselves from the body of humanity, and, to save the secret doc¬ 
trines from the profane, have hidden the ideas and thoughts from 
all but the initiated. 

These are not alone speculations for the social philosopher, the 
ethical statistician, the humanitarian philanthropist, or the hedonistic 
Avatar, but can also be considered by the Occult philosopher of 
ancient and modern proclivities. 

The cold answer of Science, derided by socialists as empirical, is 
that population would multiply rapidly up to the limits of the possi¬ 
bilities of the new Occult discoveries and man would soon find ways 
to debase the arts of precipitation and integration. And if they 
could multiply sacks of grain like the Yoghis of the eastern steppes, 
they would store them up as at present for the highest price and not 
to use them to relieve distress with a free and altruistic motive, so 
these arts are only shown to humanity by one of the chosen Avatars, 
and the truth kept alive among mortals, until the time when men 
will use the principles of brotherhood as they do now the doctrines 
of selfishness and the idea of security in separateness of interests. 

And if population did advance up to the limits of the new food 
supplies from the chloryphyll, shall we imagine horrors alone result¬ 
ing from a struggle so vast when the whole mortal world might be, 
like a teeming Chinese slum of Canton, sick with its burden of 
human life ? 

Such unthinkable misery would inevitably result from the indis¬ 
criminate disclosures of magical properties in the matter, while you 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


59 


could point to the birth-throes of new types of men, filled with a 
phenomenal glory and the idea of using the sublimated forces of 
Nature in the production of food increase from the supply of leaf- 
green, you would also find that it might become the death-throes 
of the greater part of the human race, not yet prepared upon ethical 
grounds for such supernal ideation. And the organic chemist, or 
the advanced Occult investigator and iVdept, in their varied labora¬ 
tories in every part of the world, getting ready to evolve the fact of 
the synthesis of chlorophyll, may be the artificer of a fresh monster 
that would devour the human race and free from servile didactics 
but a small handful of men, who have the secrets of Nature already 
in a latent form, and await the consummation of the age to announce 
them and bring them into active use. 

I he true and correct chronology of the universe I have already 
given from the Occult statistics in the “ Secret Doctrine,” where the 
student and initiate will find, only partly obscured, the hidden facts 
of primordial creation, with the tabulated statement of the years 
that intervened between the different ages, during the Manvantara. 

I followed no system of the recognized curriculum, but, coming 
into rapport with the exact facts from the storehouse of truth in the 
Astral light, I gave it as it is for the purpose of giving a book to the 
races coming into incarnation, a text book which they will have the 
capacity to understand. 

The science of the coming race will find the findings of its pre¬ 
cursor dismal in what is unknown and that the known is useless, — 
not touching upon the psychical nature of man, but being merely 
discoveries which affect man from the standpoint of money, a mer¬ 
cenary foundation being always to be found in connection with all 
the investigations of modern science, and not one thing prosecuted 
for the use of the race or the selflessness of the discoverer. 

One special matter of interest to the world at large about the 
Llamasary, and I will close the subject. During the gloom of the 
vast caverns, shapes of varying density are to be seen in groups, 
solitary, and in pairs entwined in loving embrace,—Astral visitors 
indeed who have come during repose of slumber to obtain the re¬ 
freshment which is here given by the silence and stored power of 
the Hierophants. 

The chelas and initiates, of every grade of advancement, have 
the faculty of travelling in the Astral or soul body, and this is the 
secret of those peculiarly vivid dreams or remembrances which many 
among the mortal world have had about these scenes, incidents and 
memories of midnight journeys, ceremonies, recognitions and Occult 


60 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


disclosures, of which otherwise they would have had no knowledge 
whatever. 

The Llamasary attracts them, and here we witnessed their com¬ 
ing and I saw and had impressions of vast numbers of the chelas, 
whom I afterwards met in the body as I made the tour of varied 
places in my earth pilgrimage. 

The Astral or soul body taking part in the services and cere¬ 
monies gives to the ego all the significance that they would attain if 
witnessed in the body. 

Thus progress is possible for the soul in Occult development 
when the body is tied to the locality where the Karma requires its 
identity. Degrees of initiation are first experienced by the soul 
and then become part of the skandas, are to be passed down to the 
lower or human mind and are recognized by the initiate as some¬ 
thing which comes as a dim recollection first, and then finally finds 
operation in the soul growth and in the planes of the other grades 
of human existence. 

I finally was summoned to the Esoteric Counsel of the Hiero¬ 
phants, and, although I saw no faces or forms, was conscious of the 
presence of powerful workers in the spirit. 

Then I was given the clue to my work in visions and pictures 
which came and flitted as lights and shadows across the great pass¬ 
ages of the temple. Here I saw my researches in the mortal form, 
outlined in substance as they afterwards occurred. I saw my jour- 
neyings and my next visit to America, the country in which the 
race to come will portray the Occult sciences as facts and give me 
in their memory my place as the one who gave the subject its initial 
impulse. I saw those of my friends and associates who helped me 
develop the work, those who stood manfully by my side and helped 
me with their money and counsel and were always selfless and true ; 
and also in dark shadow stood those with whom I was obliged to 
work as they identified their Karma with the result to be attained, 
but who were selfish, ambitious and acting as well for the black as 
the white masters. 

My attention was directed to this seeming inconsistency, and I 
was instructed that the wise ones would use such as far as their efforts 
could help and assist in the work, but would neutralize their personal 
ambitions when they came into play and stifled the broad intentions 
of the plan. 

Thus it will be seen that I was the victim of circumstances in 
the selection of my entourage and companions; I was obliged to 
work with traitors, schemers, those given to personalities, those who 
would help to create at one time and then, finding their work was 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


61 


antagonistic to the evil of their natures, would as definitely attempt 
to destroy; but in this I saw a purpose, and that when their efforts 
had distributed the work they could not recall their energy nor trans¬ 
mute it to evil. 

I continued to make this revelation my own and assimilate it for 
the strength it would give me in the coming struggles. I found that 
I had passed my allotted time at the Llamasary, was through the 
stages of the tests of character, and one moment I found myself 
again in motion and upon my way to the outer world. 

I had been underground for almost two years. I had parted 
from all possessions and returned to the world with nothing but my 
bare hands to fight for the truth and to sustain the Brotherhood. 

Ihis is the one part of the work which would seem impracticable 
to those who always attempt to do works with money. This one 
requirement would deter all but the stoutest heart and the wisest 
intelligence. Knowing the world as one does, it would seem im¬ 
possible to attempt to create anything of a stir or innovation and 
attack all the established institutions of the times, with their annui¬ 
ties, endowments, perquisites, and all the financial and statutory 
power which they have acquired in the centuries of superstition. 

I had nothing but my Karma, its possibilities and limitations 
and the association of that power which I could wrest from my co¬ 
workers as I wended my way from point to point. 

Think of that, skeptic, critic, bishop with a fat salary, arch¬ 
deacon, minister, or any one of those who work under an established 
order and law of proceedure in the various hypocricies ! Would you 
make much progress with your own personality, even in accord with 
established usage and with the benefit of your friends and family? 
And what would become of you if you attacked the very institutions 
which give you life and succor? What I actually accomplished 
under the difficulties does not so much concern you as whether the 
phenomena were real or actually occurred. You reason as you have 
been accustomed and fail to see that, laboring as I was, single- 
handed and without any funds, the greatest miracle of all is that I 
made the work at all. 

With these thoughts in mind, part as fact and part as the 
prophecy of my subliminal consciousness, I wended my way back 
to the savage world of civilized man and attempted to resume my 
life and existence upon the ordinary plane. I need not say that the 
gulf between me and those whom I met was great, that I constantly 
strove to bring them to me in thought, and finding that almost 
impossible retired into my self, that self which has baffled my 


62 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


closest associates and friends, collaborators and entourage for the 
years that my mortal body remained with and among them. 

I found that calumny was rife about me, and not caring to com¬ 
bat it at home, I contemplated another country. I found that I 
had many enemies and that I was obliged to refuse their bribes as 
well as the presents which were obsequiously offered by those who 
recognized my power and availed themselves of it. Except in 
those cases when I was told to acquit myself with the funds offered, 
I studiously avoided to accept money from those whom I helped. 

No one, at any time, has shown that my faults were of a merce¬ 
nary character, or that I was bent upon money making as the result 
of my Occult knowledge. While people of the class of the Princes 
Gouriel and of the Princes Gigiani and Abashedse could be found 
in my company, all those who had a hatred for them were of course 
my sworn enemies. There were regular beds of titled paupers in 
those days, especially in the countries of Mingrelia and Imeritia, 
descendants of deposed and conquered sovereigns, and feuds raged 
among them as during the middle ages. These became my ene¬ 
mies and remained so, together with all the bigots, church fanatics, 
missionaries,— than whom there are no greater frauds and hypo¬ 
crites in the whole association of constituted religion,— and later 
on others whom I will not dignify by mention. Lies after lies were 
invented about me, calumny was rife, as I have said, and nothing 
that could injure my character was forgotten. 

But I defied them all and would submit to no restraint — would 
stoop to adopt no worldly method to propitiate public opinion. I 
avoided society, that hotbed of dilletanti, who are so plenty and 
always repeat their blunders from generation to generation with 
such grand complacency. I showed my scorn for them and their 
idols, and was treated as a dangerous iconoclast, born to disrupt the 
idiosyncrasies and foibles of the fallacious mob and show up the 
crowning abuses of the hour, both social and religious. 

All my sympathies went toward that tabooed portion of human¬ 
ity which society pretends to ignore and avoid, while secretly con¬ 
sulting its more or less renowned members to see if they can assimi¬ 
late by their arts anything more of the world’s goods than they 
already have. I mean the necromancers, the obsessed, the pos¬ 
sessed, and such like magical personages, the Koodiani, Persian 
thaumaturgists and old Armenian hags and witches, healers to renew 
an already wasted life, and fortune tellers to see if the future can 
give relief from an already killing monotony of conventional existence. 

Public opinion, that goddess of scanty concretion, became furi¬ 
ous, and society made an open war agsinst me, as I dared to defy 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


63 


its time-hallowed laws in various ways. Thus persecuted and 
impugned, I contemplated travel, and especially as my powers of 
the Occult became every day stronger and I required a broader 
field to investigate and develop in. The whole country was talking 
of me. The superstitious Gouriel and Mingrelian nobility began 
to regard me as a magician, and from afar off people came to con¬ 
sult me about their private affairs, their faith in the dead, their 
ancestors and the power and descent of the ancient house. I had 
long since given up the communication by raps and preferred to 
answer people verbally or by means of direct writing in a state of 
semi-trance, which was induced by the will. 

Meanwhile sporadic phenomena was being weaned off. They 
still occurred but very rarely, though they were always remarkable, 
and when not psychically ill they would baffle all beholders by their 
subtle intelligence. I began to lead a double life. Whenever I 
was called by name, I opened my eyes and was myself in every par¬ 
ticular. As soon as I was alone, I relapsed into my usual half- 
dreamy condition of Yoghi and became another person. These 
personalities changed from moment to moment and from time to 
time, and this gave me a knowledge and power which no one could 
interpret or understand. 

I purchased a house at Ogoorgette, a military settlement near 
Mingrelia, with some funds of my aunt’s that became mine: It was 
a little town, lost among the old forests and hills that in those days 
had neither roads nor conveyances save of the most primitive 
descriptions; but I gave it to my sister and prepared for travel. 


64 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER V. 

SPIRITISM IN AMERICA. 

“And the agency called Spiritism is bringing a new set of ideas 
into the world,— ideas upon the most momentous subjects,— touching 
man’s true position in the universe, his origin and destiny, his physical 
as well as his spiritual powers, both latent and expressed; the relation of 
the mortal to the immortal, of the temporary to the eternal, of the finite 
to the infinite.”— Heinrich Heine. 

Regarding the phenomena of Spiritism then just appearing upon 
the horizon of modern thought as one of the most tremendous 
events of the age, forseeing its reconstructive and destructive ten¬ 
dencies, and desiring to witness the manifestations in person of 
those remarkable mediums whose life work has left its beneficial 
imprint upon the vast ocean of crassly materialistic theories, I gave 
to my voyage every attention with regard to this object, and, intend¬ 
ing to come into contact with all those who were identified with 
this work, I studiously refrained from stating my identity and 
travelled incognito everywhere for some two years before coming to 
the front in any of the public places where it is said that I investi¬ 
gated Spiritism. 

I arrived in New York on the 7th of July, 1873, and made it 
my home, with the exception of a few weeks and months when 
affairs required that I should visit other places and cities, for over 
six years, after which time I became a naturalized citizen, and, in 
consequence, with that characteristic abandon in all matters of 
finance, lost the pension from the government at home from the 
services of my relative who was attached to the army for so many 
years. 

There is really nothing in the States of America sufficiently 
attractive to possess one to remain there as a resident except for 
the cities like New York, Boston or Philadelphia, and even this 
latter has nothing comparable with the others in interest or con¬ 
venience. 

Having some friends in the city of Philadelphia I tried to make 
it my home, but the whole people are given over to a form of 
religious bigotry and narrow-mindedness which would prevent any¬ 
one, except one of their own class, from attempting to live among 
them. On Sunday the entire population come out in stiff clothes 
and go into the most ugly buildings, and rave,—yes, actually rave,— 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


65 


about Christ in a fashion which would stupefy anyone of intel¬ 
ligence if they were not obliged to stop away. It is the same in 
the other cities, but incomparably worse in this city of Philadelphia 
than any other one in the States, and the whole attitude of the resi¬ 
dents is governed by this pure hypocrisy. There is no liberality 
of intellectuation, no art, not any aspiration for individual develop¬ 
ment, little architecture, and a general tournour of mental abase¬ 
ment resulting from years of repetitive church going, and nothing 
accomplished except a monotonous series of paraphrases about the 
Bible, of which the exponents confessedly know nothing, as they 
usually admit. This in religion; while in other subjects the whole 
intellect is subordinate to business, a monster which consumes all 
the time these slaves have for leisure and which does little for them 
except to furnish means for subsistence and an alvine procreation. 

It is commonly understood among these people that if one 
desires to accomplish anything in art or the intellectual field, music 
or aught but that “ business,” they must go to Europe or fly away 
to Boston or New York, where some sort of life is possible except 
that of a savage mercenary or a monotone in utility. The effect of 
this upon the place is apparent, and especially in the young. There 
is no incentive to excel in thought; all analysis is limited to the 
liberality of some form of “ minister,” who expounds for all of his 
chosen ones what they may think, and woe, indeed, to anyone who 
is above his tenets or independent in action or speech. Moreover, 
there is an unwritten law of action and conventionality among these 
staid folks which gives moral colic and a profusion of resistance. 
I was amazed when I once asked a woman to smoke a cigarette at 
a friendly gathering, which I did merely to see the illiberal creature 
shudder and not from any unkind motive. She rose to a height of 
imposing disdain and said or shrieked, “ That is indecent! ” Well, 
I did as I liked, and calmly smoked on, for I had the habit as they 
say, and it was a comfort to me to thus shock these insensible 
copies of their moral and religious tutors. 

Of course nothing could result from such an imbecile course of 
reasoning except insanities, and I found that almost every family 
here had some member in the retreat in the suburbs called Kirk- 
brides, and it is no wonder. Take away from individuals all oppor¬ 
tunity of expressing their own genius, and make of them mere pup¬ 
pets, copies of parents or guardians, or some idol who annuls 
thought, and throw every obstacle in their way that could prevent 
aught except ancestral repetition, and you can have some idea of 
what a community will become. 

An idea prevails among mortals that nothing can be done or 


66 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


thought any better or more perfect than has been the custom and 
privilege of parents, guardians, or some esteemed public man or 
woman who assiduously follow conventional lines or repeat and 
copy some well known person of wealth or other humbug ideal. 
Thus anyone who has the culture or transcendental ideality of a 
higher sphere than their surroundings, and is capable of original 
expression of thought and aspiration, will become a martyr to these 
tyrannical and mediocre ones. God help any such who would be 
unfortunate enough to be incarnated in this city of Philadelphia 
among the countless array of bigots, church fanatics, humbug 
philanthropists, sectarian idolaters and colorless neutrals in residen¬ 
tial apathy; no architecture, no originality, unfit drinking water 
which flows between cities of the dead, twin cemeteries of necro- 
politan honor, where there is as much life and frivolity, enjoyment 
and innocent recreation as is to be found within the abodes of the 
uncultured inhabitants, because all are engaged in that fell octapus, 
that consuming, mercenary intoxication, “ business,” or the love of 
money, while pretending an allegiance once or twice a week to the 
opposite theories of their accepted standard of ethics, and ready to 
kill anyone who attempts to show them duplicity. All this in so- 
called Christian Philadelphia, where there are more churches, sects 
and ministers than in any other place upon the inhabited globe. 

I had an abode with a Hicksite Quaker lady on a street named 
after Stephen Girard; it was in the very centre of the place, and 
had small grass plots before each house. There was only one block 
of this street, and almost each house was a pensione, or place to 
obtain board with lodging, and here I passed some time. 

The Mrs. Martin who maintained the establishment was a be¬ 
liever in the phenomena of Spiritism, which at one time seemed to 
have been the basic faith of the Quakers; at least they seemed to 
have had the “ Spirit ” at one time among them, and it no doubt 
led to their schism with the original reformationists. I thus found 
a congenial friend and protector who was assiduous in maintaining 
an absolute neutrality, openly at least as to her belief in Spiritism, 
to avoid offending many of her residents and patrons, who were of 
the foregoing class of conventionalists. 

I was very fortunate in finding her, however, and we became 
fast friends, had mutual confidences, helpful advice and a true 
counsellor as far as she could be such. 

I dwelt within the security of her home for some time, and with 
her attended many seances and other associations of investigators, 
some of which I will relate in this and the following chapters. But 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


67 


now I will attempt to answer a query before I go further in this 
work. 

It comes up before me at this hour that many of you will won¬ 
der why I gave so much of my time and so many of these pages of 
my life to such a disputed and vexed question as religion, phi¬ 
losophy, morals, ethics, spirit phenomena, thaumaturgy, modern 
and ancient Occultism; why I made so much of them and did not 
attempt to enjoy the details and myriad complexities of existence 
with abandon and complementary assimilation; why I always was 
in gloomy reverie about the dead, the unseen, the invisible, and its 
ratiocination, its rapproachement with mortality, and the rationale 
of objective corporeality, and slighted all the salient features of 
which existence is so full; called pleasures illusions, ordinary 
habits Maya, and ever giving to death a prominence and distinction 
which usually is only accorded divided honors by theologians. This 
I will now explain. 

There is no fact in existence which gives the horror and chill of 
despair like unto Death, and there is no fact so certain and sure ! 
After birth, and throughout all that part of embodiment when the 
ego is capable of thought and mental reverie, the mind is at times 
opportunely occupied with this certainty, and at all times the in¬ 
dividuality is latently concerned with this overshadowing future. 
All know, without any argument, that, after birth, death is sure and 
final as a physical end to that part of the endless chain of incarna¬ 
tions, and no matter a rap what the religion or philosophy is, every 
one in the mortal form is aware that this consummation must be 
realized and prepared for. 

From the spirit, I can say that the same sort of weird discomfort 
attaches to the embodiment of the soul in a space of mortal life; 
that is, a spirit, feeling drawn toward birth, as a mortal is prescient 
of the approach of death, instinctively subtends an illative horror; 
the ego is sub-conscious of the many incidents and penalties of in¬ 
carnation, and of all which the immediate principles of the soul 
overlook and disdain; the less wise hasten into life with the careless 
insufficiency that characterize their haste; they go through mortal 
existence and refrain from any preparation for death, just as they 
abstained from any preparation for incarnation, and so are drawn 
into the vortex which leads them to the conditions that give them 
location and generalization as egos and beings, charged to find and 
experience to the full all those penalties and hardships which come 
to them in the life of spirit or mortal, and without the opportunity 
to properly prepare for the exigencies and hardships which are the 


68 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


sure accompaniment of conscious existence in either of the two 
worlds of being. 

The wise, however, prepare for the fact as one would for a long 
and difficult journey into an unknown country, — prepare for birth 
with the sanction of great guardians, whom they have won to their 
aid by duties done and associations perfected by services upon the 
same lines of beneficial labors which hold them together by Karmic 
lines and tensions that follow throughout the incarnation and give 
the power and strength of association during the trials and difficulties 
of mortal or immortal existence. 

Overshadowed by these loving and wise companions of spirit 
until they themselves take upon them the form of incarnate being, 
and thereafter by others of the Brotherhood and of similar and 
synchronous sympathies and tendencies, the soul is strong in 
itself and in the power of its interior entourage, showing it forth in 
its superior acts and the well maintained guiding principles of its 
bearing and conduct. 

And the lower or human principles reflect this power in all of 
the affairs of earth life while incarnate, and give to the ego that self- 
sustaining strength, health or bodily pulchritude by which it may 
be instantly distinguished from its less wise contemporaries, — 
give to it also its individualities, its peculiarities and especial integ¬ 
uments of physiognomy. Knowing the facts of spirit as well as the 
facts of mortal life, it is the especial prerogative of the soul in each 
incarnation to prepare for the next re-birth, and this can only be 
done by experiences upon those lines which give knowledge and 
power to the ego, and by preparing orderly for the next death or 
birth with fullest possible expedition and preparation. The experi¬ 
ences which the ego garner in the mortal form cannot be obtained 
in any other manner; for could they, Nature would be convicted of 
presumptuous methods in ordering unnecessary details within her 
province, and this we know is not the fact, she being abstemious 
and exact in force consumption. Thus it is the latent or expressed 
desire of the individual who is upon the path of knowledge to 
attach the fullest importance to the things which pertain to the state 
of existence which is always about to occur — in the soul life to pre¬ 
pare for the next re-birth, and in the mortal life to prepare for the 
certain death; and as any part of a wheel follows its other parts 
with unerring accuracy, so the details of life and existence follow 
each other in never-ending revolution until the end of the series of 
that Manvantara, or the ego, having attained to the state of Nirvana, 
relinquishes its returns and becomes the full guardian of its spirit¬ 
ual prerogatives and enters the further boundaries of surcease, or 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


69 


remains upon the horizon of spirit to point the way to those who 
are coming up in the scale of successive re-births. What shall we 
think of those who then refrain from any query connected with 
their coming state ; who establish within their own environment 
the distinguished careless attitude of the dilletanti, the indifference 
of the careless, or the habitual arrogance of the dogmatic; who 
never give any thought to aught but the mercenary questions 
and methods, and who live as if transition or change were as 
impossible as the disintegration of the Egyptian pyramids? Some, 
in the security of a succinctly arranged code of tenets and dogma, 
follow an established precedent in the hands of official ecclesiasts, 
who claim an authority for soul proceedure which is their apostolic 
birthright. 

Others are for the actual denial of any other form of existence 
except that to which they are immediately admitted, filled with 
avarice. This species of sloth enables them to give more attention 
to the mercenary pursuits, and as long as the form of life inheres 
they refuse utterly to acknowledge any theory of continuous 
existence, because to prepare for it would interfere with their 
accreted emoluments and worldly gains, and these give them a 
precedence and power in that form of existence which enables 
them to have distinct advantage over their fellows and companions. 
Woe follows them into the next state of life and is the precursor of 
actual soul destruction. 

Then come the myriad various professors, spiritual administrat¬ 
ors, rhetoricians, philosophers, doubters, those who take refuge in 
crass materialism and deny all but matter, and support themselves 
by a form of investigation called science, which never examines 
anything but that which exhibits no clue in a direction that gives a 
tangible basis to endeavor. These are supporters of a purely physi¬ 
cal basis of existence, and they look at death with a totally assumed 
courage or take refuge in evanescent tergiversation to avoid the 
issue so perfectly salient and apodictic. Courage is gained by 
them through the numbers of their creed, and unless in a moment 
of personal ratiocination, when the weakness of their theories is 
apparent, they drift upon the great and momentous fact of death 
without an instant preparation or advancement. I will finish with 
those who are composed followers of some saint or Avatar and 
expect an attained salvation by an admitted adhesion to the same 
principles or faith of the teacher. Whether these are of the follow¬ 
ing of those well-known thaumaturgists, Jesus, Mohammed, Confu¬ 
cius, Buddha, Appolonius of Tyana, or others too numerous to men¬ 
tion, or some composition of reformationists within any part of the 


70 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


original compound of believers, is of no moment; they expect 
results without personal work, and hang upon the skirts of a saviour 
with devout expectancy. This, too, in the face of the injunction of 
a later one, who knew and taught as did his disciple, that “ Ye shall 
seek your salvation or soul knowledge,” not that you are to follow 
leaders, except so far as that will help you to find a solution to 
yearnings and desires. 

There is no doubt that life is given to ascertain facts and experi¬ 
ences in a material body, and that there are physical duties which 
will maintain the physical necessities; but these latter have gained 
such an ascendancy through the desire of mortals to excel in wordly 
functions and prerogatives in material luxuries and fascinations of 
the planes of Maya, that they are now regarded as the sole features 
of mortal existence, and anyone who prescribes the, right to them¬ 
selves to search out the soul’s salvation and the knowledge about 
life, both objective and subjective, is regarded as a dangerous fanatic, 
and one who is subversive of all constituted order and arrangement 
in the recognized field of material sociology. 

It is common among mortals to speak of business and money¬ 
getting as if it was the chief affair of a well-ordered life, pursued in¬ 
cessantly until the body cannot longer carry the strain, and then 
comes destruction, the brain being unable to undergo the monotony 
of the details of thought and idea — with a most feeble protest 
in ethics, a day devoted to religion and the sophistry of a paid 
advocate, who manages to maintain a wordy argument sustaining 
both disease and cure,— patting the fool upon the shoulder and tell¬ 
ing him by misquoted texts that he is quite right in his devotion to 
wordly pursuits and to leave his soul’s affairs to him and his accepted 
form of faith. 

Business, beyond what is necessary to carry on the physical life 
and adjuncts of existence, is a fatal miasma, a swarming pool of dis¬ 
honest intrigue, a blighting system of ill-arranged trade, calculated 
to destroy all moral reasoning and to prevent any sort of brotherly 
feeling among men, races or countries. It has its full effect upon 
the soul of the individual, as well as leaving the most disastrous mark 
upon the race and people. It is to attain the full measure of result 
in arrogant success in material life that the human mind revolts 
against soul knowledge and culture, and as the one ideal fails to 
satisfy the ego, the other becomes a prominent feature of experience 
and religion a dominant factor in the every-day life. 

Death thus is the prime incentive to a religion, the fear of the 
unknown, the horror of passing into some change of which the im¬ 
port is mysterious, filled with dread and the instinctive loss of the 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


71 


physical faculties. All this and more, of which I leave to the in¬ 
spiration of the reader to disclose to themselves, induce contempla¬ 
tion, investigation, aspiration, prayer, knowledge, wisdom and the 
genuflexions of the supplicant after faith or revelation. 

Or command denial, agnosticism and an abandonment to the 
illusions of mortal existence in the full, until, in a moment of en¬ 
forced soul ascendency, the mind, appalled with its own procrastina¬ 
tion, stands appalled, affrighted and in the recoil loses its apport, 
passes its perehelion of energy, and then confronts ages of darkness 
in the enthrallment of mists and confusions,— lost for so long as to 
give individual annihilation, and in the downfall carry hosts of 
friends, associates and relatives. 

So strongly does this appeal to me at this hour that I may be 
permitted to dilate upon the subject of death, the need of investi¬ 
gation into its mysteries by each mortal in pursuit of its Spirit 
powers and soul enlightenment, and by themselves, and not to come 
under the domination of priestcraft or the hypnotic selfish ambi¬ 
tions of creedists or sectarian advisers, who so plainly are acting 
for the worldly good of their system and care not if the soul of the 
devotee is engulfed in repetitive procrastination, is lost in theologian 
doctrinal dispute, or comes into its heritage of spirit life totally un¬ 
prepared for its details and duties; but, relying upon the professions 
of selected advisers, has maintained an attitude of indifference to all 
personal enlightenment, to all individual investigation, and subsisting 
utterly upon the paid sophistries of theology, are incompetent to 
either suffer transition with easy grace or come into the life of Spirit 
in an educated channel and attain to the glories and joys of its sub¬ 
limated possibilities. 

Besides business, there are two other phantasms which seek to 
enchain mortals in illusory enchantments. These are the spheres 
of society and matrimony. Of society I need say but little, as its 
insidious poison is transparent and dallying with its needlessly 
etiolated pleasures — an error all must be conscious of. Matrimony 
is a sphere of life which, while necessary to some for reasons of pro- 
creative reproduction and the maintainance of the generative line 
until its result has been accomplished under the guardianship of 
false religious teaching, becomes a monotonous, repetitive existence, 
wherein its adherents are gently held by the soporific anesthesia of 
public opinion, that deadly effluvia of the majority by which mortals 
are slowly but surely led to ruin and dismay, where their individual 
advancement is held in check, genius abrogated and destroyed and 
development arrested, except upon those lines which are in accord 
with this terrible monster. 


72 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Seeing thus clearly the evils of delay in mortal affairs, and feel¬ 
ing the immense importance of preparation for death, spirit exist¬ 
ence, and, last but not least, the development of those powers in 
the incarnate man which are so incomparably superior to any other 
of life, I gave all of my time to the investigation of mortal life 
which impinged upon and was in immediate juxtaposition with the 
life immortal. 

In what respect I could do this better than by the investigation 
of modern Spiritism I would be glad to be enlightened. Tell me, 
arrogant doubter, pessimistic iconoclast of personal belief, inconsis¬ 
tent materialist, scientific cynic, where in the whole domain of mor¬ 
tal life would I be able to find in the year 1873 of this cycle of the 
kali yuga Manvantara the slightest gleam of light about man’s im¬ 
mortal destiny, in any other field of thaumaturgic endeavor, truth as 
to revelation of soul force, philosophy of sexual and moral magnet¬ 
ism, and the hereditaments and appurtenances of our individual 
selves in their mysterious apport; the polarization of sex, the an¬ 
drogynous neutrally polarized being, or God-man, varied and myriad 
states of Spirit life, teachings from the soul incarnate and realized, 
as well as from the disincarnate spirit itself and the full ratiocination 
of this recrudescent philosophy. 

Beyond the endlessly tedious reiteration about a problematical 
Christ with the bigoted, tenetical sermons of that million of so-called 
ministers with which the States are overflowing, as is also England, 
and these supplemented with priests elsewhere, archbishops and 
others of still higher ecclesiastic rank, all bent upon maintaining that 
particular system of religion (God save the phrase) which they were 
educated and paid to uphold, by all sorts of devious arguments, 
sophistries, flatteries and intrigue, where the name and philosophy 
of Christ and his apostles failed to enfold the devotee in bewilder¬ 
ing embrace,— with the materialistic Science digging at its vitals in 
an iconoclastic fit, denying the woof and sneering at the plan, yet 
offering nothing in the way of faith or belief,— there was no ray of 
light upon the horizon of Truth, no system of intellectual personal 
disenfranchisement from ignorance. The philosophies and mythol¬ 
ogies of Greece and Egypt, with their raison d’ete and exquisitely 
classical vein of educated enlightenment, were bedaubed with mud 
by these defilers of Truth, who did not wish anything to detract from 
their own perquisites and salaries, and were regarded as myths, 
antiquated legends and the degeneracy of savage days and peoples; 
or, if they were within the curriculum of persons or schools, were 
used to show rather the ignorance of those Hierophants and ancient 
teachers and their soul light. Buddhism, Brahminism, the teachings 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


73 


of the Essenes and therapeutae of the high steppes of Thibet, for¬ 
mulated as they now are, and filled with the ritual and device of the 
ever cunning high-priest, who labors to engraft upon the Truth such 
matters as will increase his perquisites, were unknown in the West¬ 
ern world; and turn which way one would there was no guiding 
sign which the weary pilgrim could consult to learn anything about 
himself or his divine birthright. There were whole oceans and 
mountains about Christ, St. Paul and the apostles, tomes of bewil¬ 
dering thoughts about Buddha, Confucius and a long array of 
accepted saints; hundreds of volumes as to church government, 
colleges devoted to teaching theology, that arrangement of reli¬ 
gion (?) which is pure business and nothing else, and systems of 
government which repudiated personal investigation upon any lines 
that might give any cause for offense to these accepted sects. Even 
while the people revolted and their own inner life rebelled against 
this enforced churchianity in the name of Christ, or Buddha, they 
were obliged by the sheer strength of these systems of theological 
endeavor to give them their support and allegiance, and woe indeed 
to anyone who was headstrong enough to gainsay their deeds or 
wishes,— a painful ostracism awaited them in social circles, ruin in 
business certain and sympathy and love withdrawn in the hour of 
greatest need. This was the state of affairs in the year 1873. 

The highest ideal was the pope ; or, among reformers, bishop, 
minister, deacon, or some office in a recognized established faith. 
Parents gave their children willingly to these semi-businesses and 
rejoiced to see holiness in the family in this way. That man had a 
personal soul and spirit, with functions and powers of its own as cer¬ 
tain as electrical volts, intelligent with a supernal vehemence, and 
desiring opportunity for growth and development, was as unknown 
as the Copernican theory to the Terra del Fuegians; but what was 
most singular was that it was combatted as vigorously as if the idea 
was a vicious disease, an unholy insanity, a madman’s imagining. 
So long had the people listened to paraphrastic abracadabra, week 
after week for centuries had their attention levelled upon Christ and 
the saints, the synoptic gospels, the sacred legends, the apostolic 
benediction, and the communion with its ceremonious liturgy and 
ritual, so long had they rested upon the saving grace cf a Messiah 
and his atonement for them with Jehovah, that they had overlooked 
their own selves entirely, and also their own souls and spirits. Only 
in death and when upon the last days of their journey in mortal form 
did the moral and religious revolt manifest, and then it was smoth¬ 
ered with drugs and prayers. 

It is not singular, then, that the people were interested in table 


74 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


tippings, raps, messages, apparitions of spirits, intelligence respect¬ 
ing their own powers and soul culture, Divine wisdom reflecting its 
saving grace upon them, and not adoring a past tragedy, philosophy 
of mortal life and beyond into the immortal spheres. The veil be¬ 
tween the two worlds seemed lifted after centuries of black, unend¬ 
ing darkness, and the rejoicing was continuous and enduring. To 
break away from that overpowering and ambitious rhodomontade of 
ecclesiastical domineering required only a moment’s thought by the 
long-hungry and suffering ones, and the schism from organized 
religion became immediate and most astonishing. The table tipping 
continued, rapping mediums became identified with personal in¬ 
vestigation, messages vied with each giver in their love and desire to 
bring light and intelligence to a long-suffering world, and the Truth 
was born amid an iconoclastic crash which could be heard from the 
Ganges to the ice-bound North and the Southern landed extremities. 

One of the most glaring humbug orators and theological troglo- 
dites known to the world of Western endeavor, that proficient in 
Simony, Talmage, in the city of Brooklyn came out in a long ha¬ 
rangue about the table being a vulgar means of teaching religion by 
means of tips, and that raps were also a poor means of showing pass¬ 
words to Truth. I may find opportunity to say here that the symbol 
of the table is the basis of his faith and that sounds are the symbol 
of primordial intelligence. If he, in common with others of the 
same bewildering sophistries, had not the axe to grind of self-prefer¬ 
ment, and cared anything about his fellow-man, they would acknowl¬ 
edge the sacred privilege of communion between the two worlds of 
being by any means; and if the way was opened to their dedicating 
better methods or more of them, they would ineffectually try for 
them in the realm of dynamics or convenient utility. All people 
have a table, and it is magnetized by the personal essence of their 
being, so that the loved ancestor or guardian spirit can find and 
utilize the od thus present, and come immediately into the life and 
existence of the family with a sweet simplicity which at once gives 
the lie and proper criticism to the useless forms and ceremonies of 
the established theology, and at the same time leads the inquirer to 
the realization of the mission. Sounds are the symbol of com¬ 
munication, recognized everywhere by the primitive mind, and re¬ 
quire no education or understanding to appreciate. It is manifest 
at once to all people of savage or educated ways that sounds which 
are independent of human contact are the basis of a supernatural 
force, and appeal at once to them as such, without argument or 
further elucidation. That this is so is borne out by the trend of 
events, for no such stubborn propagandists, eclectics, schismatists or 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKV. 


75 


hedonists had ever been met with in the history of the latter day 
church. Imprisoned in one quarter, it burst out with redoubled 
intensity in another all over the world; but in some especial quar¬ 
ters, at one and the same time, this virulent reform, sacerdotal an¬ 
tithesis, and natural revealed religion came to the front, and enlisted 
the sympathies of poor and rich alike, the simple-minded, the astute, 

the farmer in his sequestered village and hamlet, and the social 
devotee in the boudoir, — with increasing force until at present the 
entire community is tinctured with its ennobling virtue and its 
philosophy of joy and love. 

Death thus being a certain fact, religion, or the relation of the 
mortal life to the Spirit life, is an imperative function and the most 
important issue before the mind from birth. I do not say but that 
some are predisposed to better investigate this mystery than others, 
and that it is their inalienable prerogative, and their findings are 
conclusive in the realm of their domain. If they are developed 
psychically and have Astral powers, it is impossible to resist their 
logic or superior faculty. These are the natural high-priests and 
teachers, for they have something to teach which is desirable to 
know, and it is not supererogation in the field of didactics if they 
persistently refute the enemy of Truth and gain a victory. 

I must now return to the city of my residence, and in doing so 
will call attention to that supreme oasis in that desert of lethargy, 
Girard’s college, or home for the male youth, irrespective of creed, 
who are orphans and without mortal guardians. This is the most 
imposing charity in this locality, and has a constant criticism of the 
charlatans of religion by maintaining a charteral function that no 
minister of any sect can live in or preach the doctrines of his faith 
to any of the w’ards of this home. What more convincing com¬ 
mentary ! I call attention to this wise provision ! It was not un¬ 
necessary, and the spirit of Girard has capable earth associates to 
resist any innovation or abrogation of this essential feature of his 
legacy and bequest. 

I was able to meet some of the residents at this time, and I may 
mention a Dr. Child who resided upon Race or Sassafras Street; also 
Mr. Henry Seybert, of commission fame, at whose house I attended 
some remarkable seances and saw several mediums of note; also 
Mr. Hazard and a Mr. Evans, who afterward became my great friend 
and occult companion ; Mr. Joshua Pusey, an attorney, who attended 
to my affairs and also those of a medium in New York, a Mrs. Gray, 
although I knew her by another name, — and hosts of others, all in 
pursuit of knowledge through the medial efforts of some proficient 
in this direction. 


76 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


I afterwards lived at a dwelling on Sansom Street, over the river 
in the western part of the city, and it was here that I passed that 
part of my life in marital connection with Mr. Bettinelli, a gentle¬ 
man whom I never regarded with other motives than curiosity, and 
whom I married to save from a suicidal act and avoid his Astral 
companionship, which he had promised if I failed to connect myself 
with him by this act. 

I was married by Dr. Furness, a liberal-minded minister and 
licensed to perform the ceremony. This incident and the seances 

I attended, together with the association with Col. O-, then just 

beginning, are about the only matters of interest which I can relate 
in connection with my life in this most uninteresting place. 

To avoid any repetition of the affairs and incidents as related by 
Colonel Olcott in his “ Old Diary Leaves,” now just fresh from the 
printer, and having at this time no comment to make upon his 
opinion of me, in our joint association for the collaboration of works 
upon ancient and modern Occultism and the propagation of the 
truth about the “Masters,” Mahatmas and the theurgy of the East¬ 
ern countries, modern Theosophy, I will only relate such circum¬ 
stances as are known to me alone, or to both of us, which have not 
as yet been given to the public. For it is my desire from the Spirit 
that this propaganda should be entirely opened to the student and 
inquirer, and there is as much retained as has been emitted. 

I was invited to a seance at the home of Henry Seybert; he 
lived then upon Walnut Street near Tenth, but afterwards moved to 
a temple on Clinton Street below Spruce, and about the centre of 
the city. He was of one of the most prominent families in this city 
and was of immense wealth. 

His cousin, George S. Pepper, of the family of Brewers, was 
estimated to be worth at least seven millions of dollars, and Mr. 
Seybert was as rich also, besides being without kith or kin in his 
immediate house. He gave the city of Philadelphia the large bell 
which, in the Temple of Independence, replaces the bell known as 
the Liberty Bell, and which has made several tours about the country 
as a show bell and the one upon which was rung the first peals when 
America, or the United States, declared their independence. 

The medium upon this occasion was dressed in a long velvet 
gown of garnet, and I was impressed with his peculiar face, resemb¬ 
ling that of one of the Arab sheiks whom I had met in the Llama- 
sary in Gorundia, near the Persian frontier. The first items of phe¬ 
nomena occurred in the light and were observed by those present, 
who as to this part of the seance' were a unit in agreeing that it was 



HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


77 


distinctly real and factual and done without the medium’s will or 
contact. 

There was present a lawyer by the name of John Price Wetherill, 
of one of the best families of that city, also a Mr. Evans and a Mr. 
Pusey, a trance medium named Gladding and her husband, a minis¬ 
ter of the gospel, a Mr. Shepherd and several ladies besides myself; 
I believe also that I made here the acquaintance of Mr. Seth Pan- 
coast, and Mrs. Martin completed the company; there was a musi¬ 
cian who played softly upon a harp and who was without sight. 
At times the strings of the harp were played upon in the light when 
no person was nearer than several feet, and the soft shadow of the 
hand could be seen across the outline of the instrument as the fin¬ 
gers of feminine character gently crossed the strings. After this 
and some other phenomena, which was of a most interesting char¬ 
acter, the lights were turned down, and while still light enough to 
• see each the other plainly, raps came around the room, and the arm 
of the medium being bared, there was upon it in the skin, in red 
colors as in a stigmata, the names of relatives and friends of those 
present, and especially as in my case some names of Adepts who 
were alive and signed in their known writing, with seal and sign as 
I alone could recognize them. Mr. Seybert received a message 
from a relative who had been an aggressive reformer in the line of 
temperance and increased suffrage for the negro, who was then free 
but had not been granted the constitutional privileges of the ballot. 
I well thought of this, and for a long time retained a copy of the 
message. I received a message from an uncle of mine and a rela¬ 
tive who had suffered the change of transition at Mingrelia, the 
name of a Russian Agavepeta, or serf, who had been attached to 
our house when I was a little girl, and several others. Some of 
them were spelled out in sounds upon the harp or were struck upon 
the strings in affirmative response when I asked the question, men¬ 
tally, if they were present and were indeed with the vast majority. 

Mrs. Martin also received a message from relatives and friends 
and also from some who were dear to her as companions and 
associates. 

All who were at the seance at the time expressed themselves as 
being confident that they were in communication with the Kama- 
loca, or, as they called it, the Spirit-world, and that they were per¬ 
mitted this revelation for the benefit of a benighted community, 
who were church-bound and in the grasp of the priests and hire¬ 
lings of a false ministry. This was the tenor of several of the com¬ 
munications, and one of them, from Voltaire, excited the wrath of 


78 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


the minister present to such an extent that he left the room imme¬ 
diately upon the close of the seance, and I never saw him after. 

There was some peculiar phenomena that I never observed at 
any other time, and part of it I will notice. Mr. Seybert had made 
some peculiar mechanisms, which I had never seen before, to receive 
messages upon; they were circular dials, raised from the table, and 
with an ivory dial running around freely, with the letters of the 
alphabet in the several languages arranged so that when the hands 
pointed to a letter it could be immediately seen and recorded. 
This saved time in receiving a message by raps, and served to pre¬ 
vent any personal interference or help from the medium himself in 
giving the messages. The dial could be hung upon the wall or 
placed upon the table and covered with glass, if necessary, to further 
isolate it from all contact. 

It had not only letters upon its surface, but words and names, so 
as to prevent any loss of magnetic power and strength. These cir¬ 
cular stands had thus a dark space within them between the table 
and the top of the dial, giving by this means a cabinet or repository 
of power to influence and increase the manifestations, especially if 
given in the light, for some of his sittings were held in the light, 
and it was at them that the more important messages were given. 
Some from Washington, Thomas Paine, John King and numerous 
spirits I examined by permission of Mr. Seybert and his friend and 
associate, Mr. Hazard, and clearly saw that there was no doubt as 
to their genuine Occult character and the text of a great significance, 
which I insisted ought to be given to the world; but I believe this 
was never done. There was another machine which Mr. Seybert 
intended to have patented, and the details of construction I or he 
can give to anyone who would desire to bring them before the pub¬ 
lic, to facilitate spirit phenomena, although they are of no import¬ 
ance for communicating in messages and intelligence, this means 
being incomparably superior to any now in use, but other incidents 
intervened and prevented. 

There is a circular glass case of the thinnest character, and it 
rested upon a base of rubber; this was therefore outside the con¬ 
tact of the medium, and therefore anything occurring within this en¬ 
closed space was indisputably correct and of value. Within could be 
placed numerous articles which could be operated upon by the un¬ 
seen intelligences; a bell could be rung or a clock stopped or started 
or the hands taken from one position and placed in another, besides 
numerous other tests, all of which were carried on under the super¬ 
vision of two spirits, that of B. Franklin and of a spirit called simply 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 79 

John; these two were interested in these experiments chiefly and 
others of an electrical character. 

I desire to give great prominence to these seances for the reason 
that, seeing these gentlemen taking such an interest in Occult 
phenomena in the country of crass material pursuits, gave me quite 
a surprise; and as there seems no certain record of Mr. Seybert’s 
discoveries or philanthropic efforts to introduce and sustain these 
initial phenomena of Spiritism, I wish to thus speak of them, ex¬ 
plain some which I witnessed, and testify to the genuine medial 
efforts of Charles Foster and some others whom I was permitted to 
examine while in Philadelphia and before my mission to Chittenden, 
the home of those great mediums, the Eddy boys and their sister, 
Mrs. Huntoon, then coming into prominence, as the Davenport 
brothers had faded and become obscure,— but I must not anticipate 
in my record and narrative. 

The wall of the temple of Mr. Seybert had been papered with a 
grey neutral tint of covering, and upon it over the several musical 
boxes, where they were located around the room, had come out into 
distinct shape and visual appearance the pictures of some of his 
relatives, guardian Spirits, and many others,— the fact that no copies 
of them were in existence being of no moment to the operating 
forces in precipitation, but they drew the colors from the elements 
in the atmosphere, or akash, and the faces were copied from those 
in the Astral aether. These were of a permanent character and 
could be freely examined by those of his friends whom he thus chose 
to honor by his belief and confidence. 

Of the medium I may be permitted to say that he was a Spirit 
of the most ancient cult, incarnated by his own desire at this age to 
usher in the reform of the Manvantara. Besides these manifested 
powers there was a latent force of knowledge and a stream of 
secreted ideas which were withheld from the profane, merely because 
they were not ready to either digest or assimilate them. No fact 
within the scope of ancient or modern esoteric Occultism seemed 
to be unknown to him, and in his society and companionship we 
mutually found solace and interchange of ideas, and the opportunity 
to satirize our inimical skeptics and those devoted to an organized 
resistance of these supernal truths. 

His personal appearance commanded great respect, being a com¬ 
manding figure of stern presence, and robed in a long velvet gown 
which swayed from side to side as he in Mantramic fervor recited 
the theurgy of his order, secretly at times, and thus commanding the 
elementals and forces of the invisible world to bring from the deva- 


80 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


chanic world the fact of communion and the messages and phenom¬ 
enal revelation, which either irritated or cheered the investigator. 

It was not unusual for this medium to give several perfectly cor¬ 
rect names of the departed ancestors, and tell incidents unknown to 
anyone but the inquirer and relative, while in a partly normal condi¬ 
tion, which were always recognized and a source of great wonder to 
the recipients. Although many reasons were propounded as to how 
this could be done without Occult foundation, their incipiency and 
insufficiency contained the germ of their own destruction, and it 
came to be generally known that Mr. Foster possessed a power 
which was to be the ruin and dismay of the sects and their domi¬ 
nant arrogance in the field of ecclesiastic didactics. 

Having had similar powers which I had abrogated and removed 
to attain to still higher states while in the seclusion of the Llama- 
sary, I was much interested to observe this form of release from the 
usual planes of life breaking out in new and marvellous ways, and 
with my conscious will I could not only evoke similar powers but 
help anyone who was in this field of Occult endeavor. The even¬ 
ing of the next day, while sitting in the twilight, I had a letter from 
the Central Lodge coming to me by the underground route from the 
Devashastras, or Mantramic foster parents, which bid me give unhesi¬ 
tating support to these occurrences, and although to avoid all repeti¬ 
tion of my own medial state I was to assist whenever I could, yet I 
was not to give the phenomena myself, as it would bring me upon 
that plane and I would take a step backward in the Occult Adept- 
ship which must be avoided. I was to uphold all manifestations, 
and especially as they were under the direction and guardianship of 
our lodge and the seven others in the different lands, connected by 
the star of Jupiter,— the age demanding the active intervention of 
the Brotherhood to avoid its destruction and the extinction of those 
coming types which would uplift the race and prevent its degeneracy 
and merely repetitive procreation. 

There were other commands and items of a personal nature, and a 
review of family affairs which I could not ascertain myself in this 
centre, for the reason that the currents ran in a widely different 
direction and I had not perfected the American ground plan at that 
time nor given the impetus to the air guardians with force and 
vitality. 

I had observed up to this time almost all of the Occult phenom¬ 
ena then occurring, except the materialization of the full form of 
the person alleging to return by this method ; and desiring to insert 
in my philosophy this remarkable fact, I, in company with some 
friends and the Mrs. Martin in whose house I was still domiciled, 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


81 


directed our attention thereto, and came in contact with a medium 
for this phase, a Dr. Gording, who was residing in New York but 
having connections in this city, and, being also under the protection 
of Mr. Seybert, was coming and going between the two constantly 
and maintaining a residence in both. 

I arranged for a seance, which was so very remarkable at that 
early day in the Spiritistic propaganda that I will insert it here also, 
as also one seance which was held with that prince of mediums, Dr. 
Slade, the best daylight medium at that time before the Western 
world, and who afterwards gave seances to the Russian nobles at St. 
Petersburg through my own personal intercession and by my engage¬ 
ment. 

At the Gording seance the medium sat inside a cabinet con¬ 
structed merely of a slight framework of wood and covered with the 
thinnest black material that would shield the forms from the gaze of 
the optic nerve, which they could not stand in their weak magnetic 
condition. 

I had seen the Astral of the magician in the East as it was with¬ 
drawn from its physical envelope and hovered a moment in the air 
over the place where the body rested, and I had also seen several 
apparitions, or the Linga Shirirah, of the human or disincarnate lower 
principles of man as they were in their mission of help, giving 
strength and joy to the suffering by this means; also in the Llama- 
sary they were appearing and going to and fro as shadowy and misty 
individuals in a London fog, while their bodies or physical counter¬ 
parts were asleep or at rest in some selected spot; but I have never 
seen the Spirit form made up so strong that it could speak and offer 
the observer the well-known lineaments of life and being. It was 
this which I desired and the philosophy of which was apparent to 
me at once, for given the solid matter of the form of the medium 
and its atomic construction and the subtle chemical laws of spirit, 
and it would be a comparatively easy experiment to overcast the 
form with another expression, or by withdrawing sufficient element 
from its body of atoms to rebuild another form in which the aura or 
soul body of the departed one might temporarily return to earth 
spheres and the loving communion of the one left behind. 

A deceased wife or husband could come in strong attachment to 
the other and draw, with the help of the medium, sufficient matter 
to give the well-known lineaments character of expression and the 
actual tone of speech which was their peculiarity upon the mortal 
earth. 

After passing into a trance, with its accompanying liturgy, the 
medium went into the cabinet, and in a few moments afterwards 


82 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


the form of a beloved relative came out into the room and approach¬ 
ing me said : “ Joy on this day, the dead return. Mourn no more, 
my child, for it is indeed true, and the peals of bells will tell it to 
all the suffering ones; the grevious blight of error will be removed 
from the children of man and with this means joy and love will 
come again to earth. Give this Truth your full accord and help and 
by this means you will bring a great light into the benighted world.” 

I was much astonished to see my relative, whom I had left alive 
and well in Russia, now come to me in the form from a cabinet in 
America with such a startling message, but there were other wonders 
to relate, and after a time we became so accustomed to this form of 
association with apparitions and the Astral counterparts of men that 
it but extended the living friends we had to an almost illimitable 
circle. Another spirit form which interested me much was that of 
George Washington, who gave me his hand and said in a loud voice : 
“ Child, sustain this our common cause against a greater enemy than 
a foster country which is depraved by avarice and degraded with 
arrogant assumption, and at all times stand for the Truth.” 

I saw him plainly in his continental uniform and three-cornered 
hat, and over his head, in the gloom of his shadow, the faces of 
Lafayette, Napoleon and Josephine side by side; these faces flick¬ 
ered and waved to and fro, and finally swished into the cabinet in 
an electrical wave and disappeared. 

Some others came, notably a dark Arab form of a swarthy being 
from the interior of Kurdistan, an interior province of Persia, where 
I spent some two months of my life while in the East. I recog¬ 
nized him as one who brought me flowers from the shrubbery 
around an old kiosk or pavilion which surrounded and led the 
way to the temple in that vicinity. His manes reviving, he turned 
toward me and with a wave of his hand held out to me some of 
the leaves of the palm, which is so vigorous in growth and so indi¬ 
vidual in botanical character that it was unmistakable and easily 
recognized. I kept this for some time, but it faded away in sub¬ 
stance and gradually disappeared. 

I being called upon by reasons of these manifestations and their 
unusual strength and electrical virility to help by the means of cere¬ 
monial magic, I, with the permission of the guides of the medium, 
a Dr. Abselom and Vivian Girard, made some incantations, and 
the medium was levitated in the air and carried around the room 
over our heads from out the cabinet, feet first, and finally returned 
there over the top of the curtain. As the chemicals of the medium 
body blended so well with my own, this was possible by reason of 
the A’ves’a, or temporary metempsechosis by the Llama of Avidia- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAYATSKY. 


83 


kalpa of his physical frame, called into activity with my expressed 
will. 

This was so remarkable at the time that it was written up and 
signed by those present, but for a time was withheld from print 
because of the public work of some of those who were in attend¬ 
ance, but all unreservedly subscribed themselves to the fact as I 
have stated it. At one of the numerous camp or summer meetings 
of Spiritists then being inaugurated some months after this occur¬ 
rence, this medium was in the daylight, in the presence of some 
hundreds of spectators, levitated and carried up in the air like a 
bird and deposited upon the roof of a building in close proximity 
to the speaker’s stand, upon which, under the “ control ” of his 
nearest guardian spirit, he was exhorting and expounding the Spirit 
philosophy in a thoroughly entranced condition, and almost uncon¬ 
scious of the fact until related to him afterwards. I know now that 
the Llama, seeing this opportunity of experimenting with this 
medium and bringing it to a conclusive test before the throng, 
brought my Astral body before him and caused it to inanimately 
repeat the Mantram, whereupon the phenomena which we oc¬ 
casioned in the closed room was repeated in the daylight and under 
conditions which precluded all possibility of collusion or physical 
aids. 

This medium afterwards developed such a degree of sensitive 
psychology as to drift aimlessly into the kama-loca spheres while in 
the body and call there to the astonished sight of the shells his 
atomic physical body. This had as much missionary effect upon 
the spirits and reliquae as the purview of the spirit had upon the 
crassly materialistic human consciousness. 

The bringing of objects from great distances was also accom¬ 
plished, and at our mental request articles were brought and handed 
us for examination and found to be what they represented. One 
evening in particular I had placed in my hand, by a form of a high- 
priest, the tablet which was around the enclosure in the ground 
stone of the Temple of Dharmaa pavidya Sankayria in the ele- 
phanta grove of the Skundpa near the rock houses of the inner 
tribes of the caves and jungles of Hindustan. I read upon it an 
inscription in intaglio of the parable of the U’panishad, which 
relates to the seven virtues of the Buddhi and the steps to their 
acquisition. This was in Sanscrit and in exact copy of that which 
I had seen often upon the sanctuaries of the outer and inner shrines 
of Brahminic Llamasarys. 

There was no longer reason to doubt the revelations of the phe¬ 
nomena ; the truth of spirit return and the theurgy of the ancient 


84 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


seemed to be an assured fact. What relation to their present status 
such revelation would make and its revolutionary tendencies upon 
these church people and their constituencies, I could not reason¬ 
ably judge, but that it would be at once destructive and reconstruc¬ 
tive there was no reason to doubt. I saw that Master had sent 
me to America for work, and that my apprenticeship had ended 
and that my work for the benefit of humanity would soon become a 
real duty — one which would overwhelm me with its iconoclastic 
burden and use the entire life of this embodiment. 

The medium Charles Foster is with me in spirit, but at this hour 
Dr. Gording is in the flesh, although a very old man and an un¬ 
doubted mystic with powers both latent and expressed of a very 
high order, for it must be explained that many mediums are pos¬ 
sessed of other and greater powers than those which are used to 
demonstrate a truth or establish a phenomena; but mortals are 
children in the plane of spiritual dynamics, and must be led to the 
consideration and contemplation by slow and sure degrees, taken 
from the minimum to the maximum of truthful revelation by the 
stages of the initiate, and released from the enchantments of Maya 
gradually and in due sequence, so that for the casual inquirer just 
about to embark upon the troublous sea of psychic development and 
investigation, raps, sounds, independent writing, materialization and 
the apport of objects from a distance, the passing of matter through 
matter, and such similar demonstrations, with personal clairvoyance 
and clairaudience, and if possible, as in the case of Mr. Stead, the 
editor of “ Borderland,” the phase of development called automatic 
writing, by which other and more independent phenomena can be 
checked, are sufficient to call the psychological intuition into play 
and accomplish the initial release from the entanglements of con¬ 
ventional thought and its barriers to Occult chelaship, and the use 
of the medial faculties; after this has passed its initial stage, and 
when the soul is longing for a more substantial revelation and the 
development of the personal will, rather than the guardianship of a 
band of spirits of varied power andj strength, then begins the tutor¬ 
ship in conscious magic, or the evokement of the Astral powers and 
forces according to the desires of the personal incarnate Spirit, and 
which leads a mortal from the boundaries of the human plane up 
into the ethereal strata of the Mahatmic or supernal plane of em¬ 
bodied existence. 

This is the development of the personal spirit and the real object 
of all investigation, for were it otherwise the soul would remain 
always in swaddling clothes and never become independent as an 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


85 


entity, or able to command the forces of its pupils to excellence and 
graduation from scholarship. 

Mediumship is a long and giant stride from planes of human 
utility, such as business or religion, art, or the numerous occupa¬ 
tions which sustain life but are not in any sense ideals for soul or 
spirit development. It precedes chelaship in the Occult Lodge 
and initiation upon the planes of inferior Adeptship, and prepares 
for these av.enues of soul growth, but it is in no sense an ideal for 
human endeavor, although Spiritists have tried to make it such, even 
in the face of direct orders from Spirits to the contrary, and their 
human and mortal Avataric contemporaries. 

The design of development is first to assist the human incarnate 
ego to understand that the existence of Spirit is a fact in Nature, 
then to lead by gradual stages to come into rapport with their own 
embryonic spirit, and lead this to grow and strengthen in the sunshine 
of Spiritual revelation and magnetic wisdom until able to shed its 
swaddling clothes, when it emerges from the gloom and weakness of 
personal ignorance and begins its upward journey to Adeptship and 
the association of the Brothers who are around it, while unperceived 
and unnoticed by the physical faculties, ready to adapt it to the need 
of the hour in assisting its fellows in altruistic endeavor, and always 
coming into greater and further knowledge of its correlations with 
power in magic, or the thaumaturgical theurgies, which gradually 
lift it up to the parent embrace, or bosom of Abraham, the eternal 
Beness, Parabrahm. 

Mediumship is an essential feature of this proceedure, and it is 
not to underestimate its glorious possibilities that I outline this Path 
for the effort of the chela. My own immersion in all mediumistic 
endeavor, by my own reason and the advice of “ Master,” would 
prove this, if any were needed, but I must reiterate that medium- 
ship is not an end, but merely the suburban outskirts of Occultism, 
which lead to the Shikinah of personal magic. 

I had made many acquaintances by this time in this city, and we 
were accustomed to meet and talk over these matters. Among other 
affairs, I found that our attention was always directed to two de¬ 
tails,— the necessity for the strength of association and mutual help, 
legalized if possible under the chartered rights of state sovereignty, 
and also that as one came more into relations with these Occult 
details, the day life and companionship was at variance with the 
others about the house and in every walk of existence; it was, 
therefore, subject of argument whether the seclusion of a country 
life or a residence among sympathetic people was not more con¬ 
ducive to rapid development. It was a fact that the pursuit of 


86 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Occult subjects was attended with much persecution in that time, or 
so much secrecy had to be observed that it defeated the desired 
result. I found that all constituted movements had the sanction of 
chartered rights, and were under the protection of government, 
either municipal or state, and, therefore, entitled to the protection 
which the numbers of the adherents made possible, and also legalized 
the receipts and expenditures by officers of a society of the necessary 
machinery to concentrate the operations of the aboriginal propaganda. 

The magnetic surroundings of a lodging house was antagonistic 
to phenomena, and the mental opposition of any in the vicinity who 
were aware of the character of the pursuits in Occult directions pre¬ 
vented the success of our experiments and abrogated results when 
all other conditions were favorable, so that I contemplated a place 
where the mediums could be free, and finally accomplished a 
temple in the west part of the city of Philadelphia, on Sansom Street, 
No. 3420, a two-story green-stone house modelled like all houses 
in that city, with front and back buildings and a separated yard 
or enclosed space to each residence. This gave a sort of seclusion, 
and, barring the publicity of the papers — then a great enemy of 
the new faith — I felt that much had been accomplished, but it was 
only a temporary abiding place. The city was full of antagonis¬ 
tic forces and accomplished the temporary ruin of some Spiritists 
and the best mediums by crushing them out of places to live and 
building up lies and warfare against them, and I plainly saw that 
a community must be sought whose entire inhabitants were sym¬ 
pathetic, and this led me to the settlement of the Shakers in Oneida 
County, New York State, the president of which I had met at Mrs. 
Martin’s house in Girard Street, and who invited me to the place 
for an indefinite stay and accorded me full opportunity to investi¬ 
gate the many mediums at the community. 

Failing to secure any support to my idea of a legal society, and 
being much disgusted by the tricks of the press to expose and 
needlessly persecute mediums who were at that time under my 
protection, and also being aware of the efforts of the society of 
Young Men’s Christian Association to stamp out and incarcerate 
all proficients of magic in that neighborhood, I thought of the invi¬ 
tation to visit the Shakers and at once prepared myself for it. 

Leaving my affairs in the hands of some staunch friends, and for 
myself as well as for them looking out to find some retreat where 
we could study and teach free from all sectarian abuse and ques¬ 
tion, I renewed my pilgrimage, and on a stormy evening, by a 
country stage, arrived at my destination among the charming hills 
and valleys of this beautiful region. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


87 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE SHAKERS. 

Spiritism and Magnetism in Sex.— Communal Rights, Seperation of the 
Sexes and Tilling the Soil.—Privilege of Religious Association in the 
Propaganda of Truth. 

I was admitted to the full rights of a member of the outer family 
upon my arrival at the settlement, and in a short time was so much 
domesticated as to enjoy the incomparable scenery and the fresh 
beauties of Nature in her loveliness. It was Spring, and the roses 
were leaved and contained the promise of their coming glories in 
scent and bud and bower; the trees were in blossoms and some 
were laden with scent-bearing buds; shrubs of early variety were 
giving the tender grass some shade from the sun, which at mid-day 
had some torrid radiation; birds were twittering about, the cattle 
roamed the fields, so happy to be free from the narrow stalls of the 
winter quarters, and even my heart was more glad to rest happy 
and secure in the contemplation of sympathetic association with 
people and a whole community of mediums and philosophers who 
had laid aside the cares and business of commercial life to study 
the laws of Spirit and come under the power and force of the 
modern Occult movement, which was destined to revolutionize the 
age. 

The confined magnetism of the city was forgotten, and all its 
squalors and miseries, its crime, police and the whole legality of 
municipal affairs and government which are so apparent to the 
civilized individual; also those senseless conventionalities which 
are so repugnant to all but society and its devotees. 

The rapid disappearance of the North American Indian under 
stress of the persecutions and murders of his intelligent civilized 
successor as inhabitant of the lands of the American continent, had 
left in the aura or akasha of this locality the larvae or reliquae of his 
ego, that held in its composite circulation the germs and atoms of 
the pure magnetism which had been generated by ages of open air 
life and natural accessories of nomadic existence. This was re¬ 
flected upon all those who in the Spirit search had the comfort and 
assurance of these celestial visitors as guides and companions. 

Massasoit, Teleguelpa, Saco and Tecumseh, with hosts and 
legends of others, seemed to take the first part magnetically in the 
outbreak of Spiritism, and thus I had been accustomed in the 


88 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


seances to a multiplicity of these visitors, who came with great 
strength and power and made use of their magnetic power to com¬ 
pose the results of all physical experiments in the domain of psy¬ 
chics. The chief of these bands of spirits had much to do with the 
table movings and raps, and especially in a case of lifting pianos 
and other suspensions of the well-known law of gravitation. Their 
pure aura gave the conditions which could be supplied in no other 
way. 

The Shakers seemed to come into closer rapport with these 
bands of Indians and their groups of medicine men, magicians, 
squaws and the entire confraternity of nomads than was the case 
with individual mediums, all of whom, however, claimed Indians in 
their guardian bands and some of them had many Eastern magicians 
also, who seemed to work in admirable coalition, although differing 
in thought and geographical conception of the work. 

The method of holding intercourse by the Shakers, with their 
subtutulary guides, was to gather in the evening, after the duties of 
the day were finished and all the worldly affairs laid aside, in a large 
hall or rear room in the principal building of the order, and after an 
invocation of the head master or one delegated to this office, the 
men ranged upon one side and the women upon the other would 
come under the influence of the “ Spirit,” and in many ways give 
evidence of supernormal control or the obscession of some foreign 
influence, usually one or groups of these same Indians, who would 
come into their organism rapidly and subject them in this process 
to a form of shaking or twisting of the body and hands which would 
enable them to hold the physical form more entirely in their grasp 
for the time which they had it in their power to obscess it. 

It was most curious to see these people swaying and shaking in 
the grasp of their familiars, their ancestors or the ancient high-priests 
and theurgists. 

The women especially would come rapidly under the control of 
the Indians, and soon whole groups would be under “control” and 
repeat the processes of the camp fire or the chase, whooping and 
yelling in their glee at the opportunity to revisit the earth plane in 
this manner. 

Some one person would give forth gutteral sounds, or a few words 
of remark would be made in broken speech which would be identi¬ 
fied by Mr. Evans or some one present as the oracle of the even¬ 
ing, and the orders given in this manner would be incorporated in 
the workings of the community until it could be said that it had an 
affinity with supernal ideas and spirit powers which guarded and 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


89 


guided it, between the difficulties of each day’s troubles, into the 
clear atmosphere of success. 

The men also had this power and would come under the control 
of a male chief of the chase or tribe, and sitting upon the ground 
would occasionally utter grunts of satisfaction, or jumping up assume 
the defensive attitude of one seeking the enemy, and loud yells 
could be heard as they recognized some one present who had been 
antagonistic in earth life, and they would assail them in imaginary 
warfare until the medium was entirely used up. 

One feature of this abnormal obscession was the power to heal 
diseases during the entrancement, and there were always a number 
of visitors who had come for this reason, the excitement of the rit¬ 
ual, than which nothing I had ever observed among the many strange 
people in all parts of the world either equalled or surpassed. 

The intensity of the control and the purified human and super¬ 
normal magnetism brought to these healing seances a power and 
strength that ought to surely impart the therapeutical vibrations to 
the mental, which in turn would affect the physical body and all 
its members and parts. It seemed to be so, for many afflicted ones 
would come themselves under the strange power and be controlled 
and influenced by it. 

This element more than any other defied criticism, for if there 
was nothing in the forms of power but psychological imagery, then 
the people had only themselves to blame for what they said actu¬ 
ally occurred; but I witnessed that people came there from all 
parts of the States, and after remaining some days would depart in 
full possession of their health and faculties which had been 
rescinded or partially paralyzed. 

The guides, as they were called, ordered, besides the treatment 
of the entranced mediums, the exposure to the sun of the patient 
nude, and for hours together they sat in the sun in an apartment, 
drinking in the pure ozone of this matchless country, drinking only 
pure water, and the whole body responded to this natural remedy. 
This I take it had as much to do with the treatment and cure as 
the reinforced magnetism, which, of course, being transfused and 
polarized by the theurgic ceremonies, would enter into and invigor¬ 
ate the sick and bring to them the coveted relief from their com¬ 
plaints. 

Many received here the years they had denied themselves of 
life by their riotous conduct and extravagant living, and promised 
to reform and come more under the laws of Nature in their future 
days; others were helped and some were phenomenally cured as 
they reached this valley of enchantment before any attempt was 


90 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


made in the meetings to bring them under the magnetic power. 
Thousands were convinced of the immortality of the soul and the 
continuity of life. They were given the names of the departed 
relatives through the lips of the lucide under the control of her or 
his “familiar,” and messages of loving or pertinent import were im¬ 
parted to the tired seeker after Truth, who, coming many miles in a 
skeptical mood, returned with the kindest thoughts as to their com¬ 
munal entertainers. 

Still, the longings which I had were not fully satisfied. I could 
plainly see that the world would be influenced by this settlement 
and its work of enlightenment, but the skeptical required that the 
Truth should be brought to their very doors and poked in their faces, 
where they could not shirk its revelation and demands that its 
findings be incorporated in the tissue of daily life. 

Here the Truth could be experimented with and the tired seeker 
after facts requited by associations with sympathetic believers, but 
that could not do for those who were to teach mankind knowledge 
and powers of the latent ego; they must come out into the body 
politic, and, strengthened by contemplation and the acquired power 
of solitude, give forth to all men irrespective of creed or race 
prejudices. 

Thinking thus and beginning to follow the chain of events since 
I had come to the States, I dimly at first realized the future before 
me and saw that I must return into the world and become associ¬ 
ated with its details of affairs and seek to interpolate the schism of 
Truth within its portals and hurl aside with sheer force of strength 
the attacks and slanders of the inimical and the ignorant. 

With the Mormons the idea of increased sex association to 
reach Spirituality was a theory which I had studied along with their 
other tenets of faith and belief. Polygamous sect as they were, yet 
they had abstracted from the ancient theurgies many truths relating 
to the Path from illusions and the consequences of the original 
error, and were on their own way to solve the perplexing questions. 
I had spent much time with them and resolved that it were better 
to try some scheme of actual betterment than to end all in pure 
phrases about attainment of Spirituality, rhetoric and intellectual 
reverie, when actual energy and work of some sort is required. The 
Mormons, realizing that the elements of man can only progress in 
consort with sex polarization and the discharge of duty in relation 
to Karmic contact in magnetic affinity, attempt to hasten this event 
and development by cumulative atomic assimilation, and, in the 
theory of a plurality of wives, those whose natures require magnetic 
polarization from the enchantment of sex find it in this manner and 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


91 


in fulfillment of the old and ancient law which Solomon and other 
incarnate deities taught with their semblance of the hidden knowl¬ 
edge and wisdom. 

With these people, however, the Shakers, I found different ideas 
prevailing. Mr. Evans, the high elder of the community, a profound 
esoteric Bible student and follower of the ancient theurgists as far 
as his knowledge of esotericism permitted, taught and founded the 
community upon the development of the Spiritual nature by the 
separation of the sex and their abandonment of the worldly ideas of 
sex association,— a theory in direct contrast with the Mormons and 
one which restricted the development of spirit to the possibilities 
which they could manifest who were brought by this theory to at¬ 
tempt a residence among them; but, needless to say almost, that 
much is required as the conditions of spirit make manifest in other 
directions, and this rule prevented all manifestation except upon 
this arbitrary line and in deference to this tenet. All of these re¬ 
formers and schismatists thus expressed it as their desire to g*t 
around the impediment of sex association as a barrier to true devel¬ 
opment of Spiritual gifts, but I knew that the true idea of the and- 
rogony, or neutral sex, was the only explanation of the impediment 
of illusional mystery upon this plane, and that could only be under¬ 
stood by the initiates and their chelas who followed that course of 
life by Nature and not by law or the restriction of denominational 
doctrine ; for, granted that one can come under the law of a commun¬ 
ity and cease to harbor a natural inclination for opposite magnetic 
association and assimilation, still, until the actual nature is polarized, 
there can be no result attained in structural psychopathy. 

These two sects or orders of people, however, in the new world 
were the only ones who had the idea that sex development was the 
secret of Occult attainment and that all Spiritual powers and progress 
was resting upon that most felicitous and actual foundation. 

One sought to obtain the result by heterogenous methods and 
the other by homogeneous synthesis. 

Neither could progress and attain any results, and this was a 
stumbling block in their platforms. So I saw that the world must 
be reached in their own quarters and taught by one within the very 
centre of degeneracy. 

I had then a message from the Llamasary in the usual form, upon 
rice paper, which is now with my effects and unpublished papers in 
the hands of my executors in England. It reads as follows: 

“ Most Worthy Disciple : You have now come to the end of all 
practised efforts for the regeneration and salvation of benighted men. 


92 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Search where you will, and the summit of your efforts can only be 
reached by the personal dissemination of the facts within your grasp. 

“ In a short time attempt to lay the foundations yourself for the 
rapproachement of Eastern and Western thought and development 
of Spirituality upon the ground plan as taught you within the sacred 
temples of Gibalustan. It is the only salvation of the Western race, 
rising upon the rapid extinction of the Indian races, with the en¬ 
grafted psychism peculiar to this country and its composite people. 

“ You will find in Spiritism a factor to combat skepticism, bigotry 
and the materiality of the majority, which is the effect of ages of 
church worship and the denial of Upasaka or self-introspection. 

“ Stand by this iconoclastic revelation, and the ancestors of your 
climate will enable you to come to a sufficient end in that direction; 
then push forward the ethics of personal inquiry, for with the de¬ 
struction of the old ideals you must give a substantial basis for indi¬ 
vidual action in the realm of free thought upon the lines of the 
•incarnate ego. 

“ The phenomena of Spiritism will at once prove the salvation of 
men and tear them from stupefying doubt, but prepare them for the 
rites of ceremonial magic and the proficiency of their own soul 
powers in respect to eternal life, rather than the mere single exist¬ 
ence of one earth life; for know that the life of man is immortal, 
and in myriad bodies he performs the pilgrimage which will finally 
release him from Maya and the delusions of Pridhu’agravarta. 

But after the effect of this revelation wears off and the necessary 
creshendo of phenomena shall weary rather than enlighten, then the 
philosophy of the ancient men and the wisdom of soul development 
must come to the front and give surcease of effort upon the thau- 
maturgic issue, or the structure will topple and fall to the ground; 
for by phenomena we can attract the attention of thoughtful students 
to the recrudescence of ancient and modern Occultism, the latent 
powers of mortals in the psychic domain, arrest the terrible waves 
of suicidal mania which is the cause of momentous climaxes in the 
Astral aether, and bring men to realize their supernormal possibili¬ 
ties now buried or forgotten in ill-adivised and for the most part 
abortive efforts to reach the highest pinnacles in material successes, 
which are only pitfalls for the soul and incarnate spirit. 

“ You must stand by this work and the power shall be given you 
to attain to the realization of your chosen ideal, the transmutation of 
individual effort in the physical life.” 

It can be seen by this that the idea of reincarnation, or the re¬ 
birth of the soul in myriad bodies, was not a new idea to me, for I 
had many long symbolic scenes of the human soul, following out its 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


93 


pilgrimage in different countries and among many peoples, before I 
had gone to the Llamasary, and this was years ago. Reincarnation 
is the very foundation of all mystical inquiry. Unless the hypothe¬ 
sis of spiritual re-embodiment is accepted a priori , all is confusion 
and vague reverie for the candidate in psychic achievement. No 
theory can be worked out of intellectual worth, and the mental part 
of man cries aloud for justice from the unknown action of Karmic 
reprisal. It will also be seen why I had cause to become dissatisfied 
with the Shakers and their harsh rules, which interfered with success 
upon any plane but that of obscession, and that was no secret with 
me, nor were its possibilities and dangers disputed, the latter espe¬ 
cially. The action of these intermitted moments of psychic de¬ 
rangement, while teaching a truth to the world, were undoubted 
causes of physical blemish, and these poor people struggled in 
ignorant confusion and doubt with a power and demonstration which 
at once enlightened them in respect to their psychic condition, and 
in fresh Mayavic snarls. I witnessed a few seances here with these 
strange people, examined fully the idea of a community for the dis¬ 
semination of iconoclastic thought, and realized that the world must 
be the community which would become the true church of God, 
when in enlightened confraternity it would struggle onward to its 
own ideals in the Spiritual age to come. 

I remained after this for some time at the community, and en¬ 
joyed the respite from civilization and theology. It satisfied me as 
to the salient features of a set apart people, and I determined then 
and there to bring out my work in the world at large and let it take 
its place among the whole people, with their myriad complexities 
of individual idiosyncracy, search out those who could understand 
the different parts of the esoteric philosophy and apply it irrespec¬ 
tive of caste or creed as they could. 

With Spiritism to dethrone crass materialism, and the wisdom of 
Brahminism and the Buddhi to philosophize those who could under¬ 
stand the priceless truths of Zendavestas and the paths to freedom, 
I began to speculate about the material form in which to reach the 
masses and bring their attention to the subject. 

I also found that I must seek for some associates from among 
those persons whom I could influence to assist me, who, with an 
imperfect knowledge of the English language and the customs of 
the people, was much handicapped and unable to reach the influen¬ 
tial ones who would spread the new gospel. 

It was an easy matter to attract many to the work, but to get 
those who would stick and not fall asunder by inner dissension, this 
was no easy matter; but realizing that I would be led, I gave the 


94 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


matter no further thought, but from that time looked at each person 
I met as a maid would for one who could be a husband, and said to 
myself would this one or that one do to launch the movement with 
the Americans. I required a man,— one free from the entangle¬ 
ments of family and who would remain so; one to become devoted 
to the movement and not to me,— an intellectual man well versed 
in writing and a fine literary style, fitted to maintain controversies 
with trained antagonists in good temper and language, while I sup¬ 
plied the subject matter and the esoteric knowledge and the force 
behind the throne,— one who could go about, as I in skirts could 
not, and take the battle into the camp of the adversary when we 
could not attract them from their lair. 

There were so many possibilities and so much to obtain in this 
direction that I was often tired to find that all whom I met were 
unsuited, and I often said that God must make such a one, or I 
could never do the work alone. A woman could not be expected, 
for they were not self-supporting; and beyond the matrimonial line 
of endeavor, in which they were almost all enlisted, there were 
none who had the stamina or the vehemence required. 

With this problem upon my mind and in my heart, I made all 
preparations for leaving the community of the Shakers, and thanked 
them for the leisure which gave me the opportunity to bring myself 
the next step desired. 

I had made many friends here, many who are now with me in 
the world of Spirit, or kama-loca, where we are still engaged in 
metaphysical endeavor to unravel the many mysteries of divine being. 

I was impelled to write home a letter which, by being misquoted 
in recent publications, has given rise to much annoyance among 
my good friends, the mediums and Spiritists. Having now the 
opportunity, I will insert the letter here as I originally wrote it, 
with its full equivalent of phrase and sententious idiom; thus it 
will be seen that I fully realized the work which “ Master ” required 
at my hands in those early days and some months yet before the 
Society which enlisted my efforts as secretary was even thought of: 

“ The more I see of mediums and sensitives, lucides of the vari¬ 
ous kinds — for the United States are a true nursery, the most pro¬ 
lific hot-bed for them of all kinds, genuine, artificial and inspired,— 
the more I apprehend the great dangers humanity is surrounded 
with in this initial effort upon the part of “ Masters ” to open up 
the store-house of the Astral denizens, in combating a worse evil 
in material dogmatism and scientific doubt as to the future life, and 
an extension of the philosophy of this mortal life to inquirers of 
Upasaka. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


95 


“ Poets, philosophers and Guros speak of the thin partition be¬ 
tween the mortal and the immortal worlds. They must be partially 
blind ! There is no partition at all except the difference of states 
in which the living and the dead or transported exist for the next 
stated time of subconscious incorporeality and the grossness of the 
physical senses of the majority of mankind, and the fact that their 
psychic senses are as yet inhibited and atrophied by lack of use 
upon that plane. 

“ Yet these physical senses are their salvation, possibly. They 
were given to us by a wise and sagacious nurse and mother, Nature; 
for, otherwise, individuality and even personality would have become 
impossible; the dead would be ever merging into the living- and the 
latter assimilating the former. 

“ Were there around mankind in his incarnate form but one 
variety of Spirit,— the reliquae of those mortals who are dead and 
transported to the vale of shadows as a mortal would view it,— one 
could reconcile one’s self to it. There can be no way to avoid 
assimilating the dead, and little by little, and possibly unconsciously 
to ourselves, we become they,— even physically,— especially in the 
West, unwise but progressive in art and manufacture, where the cere¬ 
mony of cremation is unknown. 

“ The physical, embodied, devour and breathe the dead,— men 
and animals, with every breath drawn in,— as every human breath 
goes out makes up the bodies and feeds the formless creatures in 
the air that will or may be men some day. So much for the physi¬ 
cal process; for the mental, the intellectual, and also the Spiritual, 
it is just the same. All interchange gradually, the brain molecules, 
the amoebae or protaplasmic germs, the intellectual and Spiritual 
auras; hence the thoughts, desires and aspirations with those who 
preceded us. 

“ This process is common to humanity in general. It is a natural 
one, and follows exactly the economy and laws of Nature insomuch 
that one’s son may become gradually his own grandfather and his 
aunt to boot, imbibing their combined atoms and thus partially 
accounting for the possible resemblance or atavism. 

“ But there is another law, an exceptional one and one but little 
known or expatiated upon, and which manifests itself among man¬ 
kind sporadically and periodically,— the law of forced post-mortem 
assimilation, during the prevalence of which epidemic the dead 
invade the domain of the living from their respective spheres, 
though formerly and fortunately only within the limits of the geog¬ 
raphical regions they inhabited and in which soil they are buried. 

“ In such cases the duration and intensity of the epidemic de- 


96 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


pends upon the welcome they receive,— upon whether they find the 
doors opening widely to receive them or not,— and whether the 
necromantic plague is increased by magnetic attraction, the half- 
expressed desires of the mediums, sensitives and the psychic curious 
themselves, or whether again, the danger being signalled, the epi¬ 
demic is wisely repressed. 

“ Such a periodical visitation is now operating in America. It 
may have begun with the Fox children and the Eddy family. In 
the former case the innocent children, playing unconsciously with 
this strong weapon for the relief of the incredulous or for the enlight¬ 
enment of the investigator, and welcomed and invited to come in 
with its well-known train of psychic phenomena, the whole of the 
dead communities, seemed to have rushed in and got a more or less 
strong hold of the living, especially in the case of the Shakers, from 
where I am writing these notes. This is a whole community of sane 
and adult people, surrounded by this force and revelation, taking 
them asleep and awake and transforming them temporarily and 
intermittently into some one they know not; nor do they seem to 
care so long as it is another self than their own — thus repeating 
that phenomena which it took me some years to repress in my own 
self, supplanting it by the education of my own manes to go to them 
but maintain my own personality and will. 

“ I am going to visit next from here a family of strong physical 
mediums and stay among them for some time; they are the Eddys, 
and I shall make experiments for myself and to use in my work for 
the enlightenment of mankind. There is no doubt that the coming 
Avatars and teachers must incorporate in their philosophy this crown¬ 
ing revelation of this age, modern Spiritism. 

“You remember, Vera, how I made experiments for you at 
Rougovedo, how often I saw the ghosts of those who had been 
living in the house and described them to you, for you could never 
see them. You were little trained in the use of the clairvoyant sight 
then, and, moreover, being young, you were mercifully spared these 
sights and senses. Well it will be the same I hope in Chittenden, 
the home of the Eddys. I will write you about it, only in this case 
it will be in a more material form and incased in the Astral body of 
the medium. They will become more visible and can speak audibly 
and give me some message which I can build from as a substratum 
of fact in the operation of the Spirit world. 

“Yet I am conscious, even under stress of this manifestation, that 
what I will witness are the shadows of the terrestrial bodies in most 
cases, unless under the operation of the law between the two worlds 
there should be permitted the return of the actual form and intelli- 


HELENA BETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


97 


gence of the one who has some necessary work to perform, and thus 
uphold a work for the benefit of mankind, or remove a tithe of dis¬ 
pute between factions engrafted upon original energy. Thus was 
Buddha returned for some years after his mortal transition for the 
purpose of preventing schism in his classes of Spiritual progress, and 
others have been permitted to return and give evidence of their pos¬ 
sessing the power and doing some good for the truth at the same 
time. 

“ There can be no doubt as to the genuineness of these phenom¬ 
ena, for they bring undisputed evidence of knowledge and intelli¬ 
gence which is apart from the power or scope of the medium to 
produce. 

“ Although there have been examples where some mediums who 
have began work before they are developed and, under the stress of 
ignorance and jealous of others’ prestige, have striven to simulate 
phenomena, and this has brought the ranks in confusion, because 
the public cannot be expected to know the right from the wrong; 
but the great body of Spiritists know the phenomena, and are upon 
the track of the spirit return in such a fashion that the phenomena 
is beyond cavil or dispute. 

“I was unfortunately or fortunately, as the case maybe, asso¬ 
ciated with some mediums who were detected in the act of simu¬ 
lation, and it was a good lesson for them. They were undoubted 
good mediums, but had strayed into the fields of personal endeavor, 
under the power of some thought, which had been thrown out by 
the Christian societies in Philadelphia, and when the original sug¬ 
gestion was removed they were even unconscious that they had 
attempted any phenomena at the time. 

“ Under the advice and guidance of my ‘ Master ’ I remarked 
that those apparitions which were in the nature of substance from 
the askash were produced by the ‘ ghosts ’ of those who had lived 
and died within a certain area of the locality in which they were 
seen; those who had died far away were less entire, a mixture of the 
real shadow and of that which lingered in the personal aura of the 
visitor for whom it purported to come and the purely felicitous 
ones, or, as I call them, the reflections of the real ghosts or shadows 
of the deceased personality. To explain myself more clearly, it was 
not the ghosts that assimilated the medium, but the mediums as¬ 
similated often unconsciously to themselves the reliquae of the dead 
relatives and friends from the aura or sphere in the Spirit world of 
the sitters themselves. 

“ I found it ghostly and filled with joy to watch the process; it 
made me often sick and giddy as I felt the control, but I had a 


98 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


strong desire to welcome it and bring it to the notice of the skep¬ 
tics. At that time I wept with them and loved their own as if they 
were my personal friends. 

“ The Spiritists, and the ones whose relatives came and could 
get the power to materialize, wept and rejoiced around the medium, 
clothed in these strong materialized reflections of the past,— re¬ 
joiced and wept again, sometimes broken down with an emotion, a 
sincere joy and happiness that made my heart bleed for them in 
their family grief. 

“ They did not reason in a metaphysical method that these simu- 
lacrae of men and women are made up of terrestrial and worldly 
thoughts, which in the estimation of a Hindoo or Brahmin would 
deprive the secret ceremony of its religious fervor. 

“ I have frequently seen such shadows or simulcrae quitting the 
medium’s body and overshadowing one of the investigators, expand¬ 
ing so as to envelop him or her entirely and then slowly disappear¬ 
ing within the living body as though sucked in by its every pore.” 

I returned to Philadelphia and had a most happy reunion with 
my friends there, being invited to address some seance or give 
remarks about the East and magic, which I was astonished to see 
created much jealousy among the Spiritists, who were against all 
philosophy or phenomena which had a different meaning than that 
ascribed to it by them of being wholly the work of the ancestral dead. 

At another seance with the great medium Slade, whose super¬ 
ficial examination and arrest in London later recalled many skeptics 
to their former doubts, I had some very charming phenomena and 
in the full light. It was at the residence of a Dr. Furness, a friend 
of Mr. Seybert’s, and this as well as the Spiritism and seances at the 
Eddy homestead, at Chittenden, Vermont, will be the subject of my 
next chapter. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


99 


CHAPTER VII. 

SEANCE WITH DR. HENRY SLADE. 

Spiritism and Materialization at Chittenden, Vermont, with Horatio 
Eddy, William Eddy and Mary Huntoon.—Preliminary Meetings 
with Colonel Henry S. Olcott and further Orders from the Lodge in 
Thibet. 

“ Remember, thou that tightest for man’s liberation, each failure is 
success, and each sincere attempt wins its reward in time. The holy 
germs that sprout and grow unseen in the disciple’s soul, their stalks 
wax strong at each new trial; they bend like reeds but 'never break, nor 
can they e’er be lost. But when the hour is come they blossom forth.”— 
The Seven Portals. 

These seances and experiences, while not sufficiently important 
in themselves to attract the student into my plane of perception, are 
necessary to show the current of phenomena and philosophy in re¬ 
search that gave my life its impact in the direction of thaumaturgic 
endeavor and psychic development. 

At the time when I was so vigorously pursuing this field of en¬ 
deavor there were but few Occultists in America, and less in Europe 
so declared. All was a miasma of affirmed science or some form of 
sectarian schism; true Spiritism was being investigated, but merely 
as a religion and spirit accessory, and without any reference to its 
magical powers or the underlying explanations of its raison d’etre. 

I can thus aver that it is essential for me to show in these ac¬ 
counts of phenomena how my necessities were fed in achieving 
development, and in what manner they had an influence upon the 
formation and embellishment of the society for Occult research with 
which the later years of my life was so fully occupied and which has 
left its indellible impression upon this century’s thought. 

Dr. Henry Slade was also a very old spirit re-embodied, and 
had doubtless been one of those ancient theurgists who had struggled 
with the primordial forces of Nature in the very early days of man’s 
endeavor to repeat the slow work of Nature, instantaneously and 
with all the power of God’s or Jehovah’s will. 

One of the strongest of the physical mediums of the day and sit¬ 
ting in the clear light of day, it is incredible how the effect of these 
powerful phenomena could be partially refuted; in fact they were 
not, but converted all who beheld them, and the ones who deferred 
belief or continued skeptical took refuge in attacking the medium 
upon any or every ground. 


100 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Our first sitting resulted in electrical discharges, like small light¬ 
ning, emanating from the body of the medium; then a hand ap¬ 
peared in the light from under the table at which we sat and grasped 
things from under our sight. Articles in the room took upon them¬ 
selves motion and became animate with the will of the investigators 
or the medium, and moved about without contact; chairs were levi¬ 
tated and the table moved and disappeared, books were brought and 
taken from us while the eye was looking at them, a cloud of misty 
shape and dark gray in color would settle down upon the article to 
be taken away, and then, enveloped within the cloud, it would all 
vanish from our best vision and be gone. They were not psycho¬ 
logical tricks either, which I was very well acquainted with, but the 
objects were really disintegrated in their particles and reintegrated 
at the places elected ; or the Linga Shirirah of the medium, being in¬ 
vested with the will of the medium, would emerge from the body of 
the medium and, taking a dissolved article from the required spot, 
would bring it into objectivity at any other place. 

A lady who was with me at the time was sitting upon a chair, at 
the distance of several feet from the medium, when she w’as asked 
if she desired to be lifted from the floor and if that would interest 
her and convince her of the fact of the power. Upon her mental 
answer being said, she was floated off the floor and for several sec¬ 
onds suspended in the air without contact with any mortal object. 
Sounds were heard around the room at the time, but upon objects 
within the room, and drops of both blood and water dropped upon ' 
our hands as we mentally requested. 

The significance of this lies in the fact that I became convinced 
of the utility of the power, and gave to myself the opportunity to use j 
it afterwards in India, to obtain the letters from the Masters for j 
Mr. Sinnett, with which my society was engrafted and originated by s 
his publications of the fact and the diction and wisdom of the 
Mahatmas. 

Mr. Slade was not a mediun for materialization, but at times in j 
the dark corner of the room a distinct shadowy form of an Indian, t 
etherialized, could be seen who was called Owasso, and another one 
who was a celebrated doctor named Davis. These were formed in 
objective filiaments, and could be seen by the physical sight. At i 
the time when writing was done it was by power electrically gener- | 
ated, and then the senses had to depend upon the intelligence dis- I 
played and the mental questions answered. Its most important 
effect upon me was to regulate my mind and ideas as to the efficacy i 
of the power of disintegration and apport of articles, which I had gf 
never seen so well given as at these interviews. I received a mes- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 101 

sage from John King, a spirit who was interested in students at that 
time, but who had another name of Morgan, and I will give it so as 
to show its bearing upon my work and the knowledge which the 
Spirits had of the Masters, whose servants they professed to be. 

This message was written upon several slates, a form of the phe¬ 
nomena which had obtained much distinction at that time, and was 
in several languages, all mixed up, but so that my trained intellect 
could unravel it. 

I give it in substance, as follows : 

“ Tread softly and lightly upon the royal road to Adeptship, and 
learn of us who have gone before. Soon those who will identify 
themselves with you and us for the purpose of assisting benighted 
humanity will appear upon the scarlet horizon, and the yellow band 
of the ascetic will weave you into a Brotherhood. Take no thought 
but to be led of us ! Results rest upon and with us. The move¬ 
ment being generated by our word and under our guidance, all those 
identified with it must irrevocably seal themselves with our authority. 
Our purpose is to lead men to self thought, and then, freed from the 
tyranny of dogma and doctrinal authority, they will become free and 
in liberty and equality each for themselves, and in altruistic endeavor 
go forward in the mysteries of evolutionary combat with the illusions 
of Maya. The Masters are behind the whole world of Spirits and 
mortals. Especially will you be helped as you have helped others. 
Teach the doctrine of self study and anticipate the time when the 
phenomena of our Spirit reform will require the counteraction of 
philosophy, to enable the students to pilot themselves through the 
mazes of wonders and mystifying laws that are generated to break the 
bands of error, but are not to stupify endeavor or give a power to 
other mortals in which to entangle afresh the disciple. We are hold¬ 
ing back the powers of your early days and require that you speak 
freely of the truths of philosophy that you have acquired in your 
pilgrimages, and lead men to learn that our mission for them is to 
lead them to become powerful in magical truth while still in the body, 
and not to merely long for death to reach a world where it is fancied 
all are equal and joy in idle felicity abounds, for there is no such 
place. Ours is a world and state of individual progress and attain¬ 
ment, and the best fitted here to advance are those who have identi¬ 
fied themselves with knowledge and power while in the form. We 
desire men to learn of us, but not to depend upon aught but their 
own knowledge and enlightenment, for these are the only things 
which will limit their spheres in the etherial celestial world. No 
salvation can be expected to assist a soul except that of its own 
developed power. In this we are willing to assist, give the initial 


102 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


password and nurse the embryonic endeavor for soul light, but the 
rest depends upon personal effort, individual application and persist¬ 
ence in the Path as shown. 

“ Hafed Bashan De Luestri, Prince of Persia .” 

After this seance, I returned to the residence which I had taken, 
my mind full of the one thought that I must soon come out person¬ 
ally and bring to the propaganda of Spiritism the element of East¬ 
ern wisdom. At the time of which I write, there was in Spiritism a 
teeming, resistless mass of investigators, each differing with the other 
as to the cause of phenomena and the ability to secure psychic 
power for themselves, and there were numerous theories as to the 
best manner of obtaining mediumistic power. Some thought it was 
necessary to sit in the dark and others contended that the power 
was an hereditary one or engrafted at birth ; to offset this, several 
mediums came forward who had the advanced power of etherializa- 
tion, voice speaking, levitation, production of flowers and other 
articles in the dark and the light, that had come to them by pro¬ 
longed sittings and following the advice of Spirits who had entranced 
them and given the requisite advice; others, however, had followed 
the advice of the same Spirits with no result whatever. Clearly 
there was some rule of endeavor in psychic inquiry, the following of 
which would produce some result in the acquisition of the latent 
power felt to be the result of the soul force. Moreover, some who 
were destitute of latent psychic power, owing to their inhibited 
embodiment for other purposes, desired a cult or combined associa¬ 
tion which gave a precedence to the truth of Spiritism, without fol¬ 
lowing the ritual of any sect at all, and this seemed to require some 
form of worship besides the routine of a seance for phenomena only. 
Others desired to look upon the power as an odic force which, 
scientifically followed, would bring mankind to recognize fresh dis¬ 
coveries in the domain of psychics, and, thus instructed, find other 
and different answers to the many problems of existence in compact 
groups. This gave rise to sociological thoughts and the form of life 
adapted best to represent the spirit in securing the means for a 
happy life and avoidance of the care and troubles of ordinary mor¬ 
tal association. If the soul could be developed by a number so 
that such growth would become an essential feature of life, then the 
struggles for existence would be limited to the requirements of each 
ego, and these being atrophied by the knowledge of the real nature 
of Maya or the spheres of illusion, the pupil would pass the first 
steps upon the Path and come to realize that soul growth would sur¬ 
pass the activities of mortal achievement, give ease and happiness 
in the body and prepare the way for the eternal joys of an en- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


103 


lightened future life. At this early day in Spiritism there were a 
few who did not deny the facts of phenomena, mediumship or the 
supremacy of an occultly ordained life, but realized it as a truth, 
lived up to their knowledge and desired to bring the world to realize 
that its customs and laws must secure revision in social and religious 
details, freedom give place to dogmatic intolerance, further schism 
be replaced by a solidarity in which some real truth should find vent 
and operation and the opportunity to bring the soul of man forward 
to its own place in psychic curriculum,— to make the prime move¬ 
ment of religion the salvation of men by personal effort, rather than 
by the doctrine of the atonement or that some one had come who 
gave salvation to whose who joined his faith without belief or knowl¬ 
edge,— to make men understand their responsibility to law for their 
actions, and that if they did not come under judgment in the brief 
span of one life, they would be re-embodied in such conditions as 
would make them subject to exact judgment for their acts in a pre¬ 
vious life. Especially was some form of knowledge required to 
instantly take the place of the vacuum which the following of a 
saviour had engrafted upon an otherwise intelligent people, and the 
facts and ideals of reincarnation and the law of Karma seemed to 
be as yet unknown, and when written or taught by advanced Spirits 
the Spiritists were unable and unwilling to recognize any thought 
but that the ego ceased at death to have further existence, except 
so far as it was to be a spirit entity, and forever clutter the boun¬ 
daries of kama-loca with its happy (?) state of careless and irre¬ 
sponsible existence. Undoubtedly, some new element was required 
in Spirit endeavor, an extension of Spirit teaching or a more rapid 
teaching, for the Spirits had so much to eradicate, so much to trans¬ 
plant, that they required mortals who had philosophy at hand to sup¬ 
plement their own teachings, which was often refuted after given, 
because misunderstood. Many messages were as little understood 
by the media as by the recipients, and a host of teachers arose who, 
as they bitterly reviled the church tenets for dogmatism, arrogance 
and fanatical intolerance, organized worse and more caustic limits to 
their Spiritistic philosophy, arranged all opponents as impudent and 
purposely misunderstood any thought which they had not themselves 
advocated. 

Where now there are thousands who publicly avow their in¬ 
eradicable belief in the law of Karma and the fact of reincarnation, 
there was not one then. Those who desired to come under the 
influence of the thought and give it credence, were so persecuted 
and reviled that they held it in secret or else gave it no attention 
whatever. Phenomena alone raged in varied forms, and its abuse 


104 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


and misuse fully occupied the attention, so that nothing else could 
be heard of or thought of. Added to all this, mediumship began to 
be an ideal, as before a bishop had been as the summum bonum of 
all mortal endeavor in the religious life; thousands were attempting 
to develop mediumship, and this in spite of the fact that no hope 
was held out to the mortal, as the fact was or not true, that they had 
latent gifts of medial nature. Many were developed above the 
plane of mediums, but had been restrained by the combined errors 
of men from giving their thoughts. These now came to the front 
and the land was spread with Christian scientists, solar biologists 
and the bric-a-brac of Spirit endeavor in countless volume; but 
none gave the slightest thought to the idea of personal supremacy 
in the Spirit realm in the incarnate flesh, but postponed effort in 
this direction until death should release them from the material dis¬ 
comforts, and then they expected to be promoted to power and 
happiness by the mere fact of transition instead of looking for 
Nirvana, or happiness and the acquisition of soul supremacy in the 
flesh and attempting to become a spirit man as a self-existent being. 
No slur was attempted by thus limiting mediumship. Its superior 
use was plainly set forth and its self-illuminating possibilities; it 
advanced tendencies as freeing the ego from one set of laws and 
impulses, while making it the subject to the work which was given 
it to do. I contemplated the formation of a society which would 
accept the fact of Spirit phenomena as being proved, affirm the ex¬ 
istence of the latent soul powers in man, and their superior right to 
rule in the domain of being; adopt from the Eastern theurgies the 
rules which Yogas taught for the permanent ascendancy of soul wis¬ 
dom, and give them publicity and practice ; resist the countless stu¬ 
pidities of conventional religious life and bring the superior knowl¬ 
edge of the soul in arranging a modified set of social conditions and 
laws that would make humanity more disposed to lessen the wide 
difference between the very rich and the poor by the dissemination 
of the altruistic principle or the law of solidarity which obtains 
when the structure is homogeneous in its composite attraction, and 
exempt from fracture because of inherent lack of affinity between 
the particles and atoms of its being. 

Thinking thus in embryo, and wondering when the cosmos would 
cease to express its design of growth, I heard the boys calling the 
news and “ all about the Spirits at Chittenden.” This at once en¬ 
listed my attention, especially as it was not time nor had the condi¬ 
tion for the formation of my society arrived. So buying a paper, I 
returned to my apartment and occupied myself in reading of this 
new place in the hills and mountains of Vermont and the marvellous 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


105 


outbreak of spirit research and phenomena at that small place, and 
what interested me more was the statement that the most prominent 
scientists and advanced Spiritists were living there and examining 
the medial capacities of the Eddys, then the most remarkable family 
of mediums before the Spiritistic gaze. 

I felt that I had a surfeit of phenomena after my experiences, but 
any news of mediums and phenomena was to me as the smell of 
war to an old veteran; and besides, I really hoped now and looked 
for some congenial advanced Spiritists with whom I could affili¬ 
ate and broach my idea of a union between the East and West for 
the unifying of the esoteric wisdom of antiquity and its absorption 
by the propaganda of Spiritism to save it from its own consuming 
fate. 

My own ideas were fully formed in an instant, as indeed they 
always were; but I waited until I should get the customary order 
from those in the Llamasary in Thibet, and this did not arrive for 
several days ; and the currents being crossed I could get no response 
to my eager inquiries. 

At length came to the house an old man who made a bow and 
disappeared after he had given into my hands a note, written upon 
common yellow paper such as parcels are wrapped in for delivery in 
stores. It wa,s but a few words and turned upon the subject of my 
dilemma, which arranged itself instantly. The note read as follows : 

“ Go forth again, child of destiny, and give heed to thy findings; 
thou art now in the right road and in a few short days will thy heart 
longings be satisfied. Bring to thy aid those who will safely and 
securely attend to our missions, and remember that it will require 
more than thy powers, great as they are, to effectually rebuke error’s 
pleadings. Soon upon the wing, seek for those who are best and 
we will attend thee. Samayilitante Sancharya Dagravarti.” 

I secured all the papers and especially noted that one Colonel 
Olcott was a vehement correspondent and critical to an extreme, 
making pungent and satirical remarks about the visitors, who were 
distinguished by the fact that all the men wore their hair long and 
the women theirs short. I instinctively put up my hand to see how 
mine was, for it had been a long time since I had given any atten¬ 
tion to these matters, and my toilette was no doubt shocking. 

I secured a berth upon the steamers from New York to Boston, 
and thence was soon upon my way to the haven of Spirit inquiry, 
not daunted by past failures, but with a feeling that now it was des¬ 
tined that my labors should see some immediate reward, nor was I 
despising the phenomena and its results upon the psychic plane. 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


100 

Chittenden is a hamlet of Rutland, Vermont, and the last stage 
ride was exceedingly charming. I discussed Schopenhauer and his 
philosophy with an old gentleman who was coming from Baltimore 
to see his wife if possible. We drifted into all sorts of Eastern and 
Western metaphysics and the rationale of universal cosmogony. He 
was a self-thinker, and reading had been a hobby of his in which 
he had scaled the heights of commonplace details and was now 
looking for the thought of immortality, which is the chief thing and 
event in all lives if not overlooked by the shimmering Maya. 

Arriving at last at our destination, I had an opportunity of 
observing our new hosts and mediums, who were three in number 
and wholesome in magnetic power. Their hospitality was of a vary¬ 
ing sort and changed rapidly from an extreme of solicitude to a 
severe isolation, as the visitor was or not impressed with the events 
in the narrow circle which composed the household. It was possi¬ 
ble to secure some attention, for I found that the seances required 
an organ or musical instrument, and going into my pocket, then 
filled for the nonce by some incident of value, I soon had obtained 
the amount with which to obtain this much needed instrument. 
The old gentleman gave me also a liberal donation, and this fact 
gave me some precedence among the number of visitors at the 
place and secured for me the attention and graces of Horatio, who 
was the most honest man and medium whom I had ever seen, and 
also his brother William, who at that time gave some attention to 
the household duties. Besides these two brothers, there was a sister, 
Mrs. Huntoon, and a most remarkable medium, the forms of friends 
etherializing in the air before the astonished gaze of the investiga¬ 
tor, and would envelop their form and then disappear as if going 
on to the very flesh of the inquirer. 

The seances were generally at night, but some of the greatest 
manifestations were constantly occurring in a sporadic manner; 
articles would move around in the air before the astonished visitor, 
and rocks and shells would be dropped upon the head with a gentle 
tap, quite unlike the force of the same element if dropped by the 
usual law. 

Being so far from civilization, the visitors were obliged to live 
and have their meals at the farm house where the seances were 
held, and many were under magnetic treatment for some real or 
fancied disease by the healer who was stopping at the domicile, a 
Dr. Weeks, and his brother physician. 

Visitors were constantly arriving, and it was no unusual thing for 
me to look up and see some stranger gazing at me or another of the 
guests with the penetration of an inquirer. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


107 


In this way, one day while rolling a cigarette, I had the pleasure 
to see a gentleman who addressed me in French, and said some 
simple remark which at the time I did not appreciate, not being 
very conversant with the American idioms. This was Colonel 
Olcott, and not knowing it I had the bad grace to say that I hoped 
that he would not write about me in the paper, as I did not want to 
attract any publicity, as would be the case if he should insert my 
personality in his articles in the paper for which he was writing. 
Assuring me that he would not do so if requested, I at once found 
that my acquaintance was the one who afterwards became the col¬ 
laborator and associate in my society and life work; one who ex¬ 
isted to the end as the real and substantial founder of the Theo- 
sophical Society, but whose real blunders, more than any other 
feature of a remarkably brilliant intellectual life, contained the 
nucleus for a permanent subsistence in the recrudescence of Occult¬ 
ism. At that time Olcott was a man of the world, well versed in its 
subtle hypocricies, extremely erudite upon ordinary subjects, and 
with a flowing discourse which enwrapped the hearer in a maze of 
belief and faith. 

Ignorant of the simplest Occult law, and taking up the investiga¬ 
tion of psychism from the physical point of attack, he stood every 
chance of falling amid a ruin which his own incredulity would build. 
Moreover, what a man for the work, I thought! So well able to 
write articles and attack the enemy, able to make addresses which 
would stand the test of all literati. Schooled in worldly wisdom to 
the etiolated extreme of a social scholar, I looked upon him with 
the eye of one who had found the limit of their search and merely 
for the use which he would be to me in the work to be done, and to 
himself if he was desirous of coming under the chelaship of the Ma¬ 
hatmas. At present he did not believe in the Spirit phenomena, 
the identity of the Spirits behind the movement, the possibility of 
generating Occult work upon lines of original simplicity and with 
the stupendous possibilities of Eastern magic as a result, rather than 
the worship of the religious inclined for a test of Spirit identity, 
which only interested those who were confined to ancestors in 
realms of Spirit. I weighed the matter carefully and only looked 
upon it as a detail for me to consider in the project which I desired 
to animate. From that moment I looked upon my visit as being 
necessary to bring about a united power to effect, by contrasts and 
the friction of personal inaptitude, the work which was my life mis¬ 
sion, and here he was. So much has been written about me by my 
friends and associates that I feel at liberty to also write about them. 
The criticism which I have borne, due as much to the incipient 


108 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


knowledge of the critic as to the fancied or alleged fault, would seem 
to give me the right and privilege to not only maintain my personal 
prerogatives in the domain of individuality as to accord to others 
the same. 

But before entering into this matter I will finish the accounts of 
the seances and our associations and companionships which obtained 
our attention at the Eddys. 

There has been already so much written, in detailed accounts of 
the phenomena, that I will pass it by and refer the reader to the 
published accounts of the seances in “ People From the Other 
World,” by Col. Henry Steel Olcott. In this volume they will find 
how extensively and exhaustively the matter was gone into at the 
time. The Spirits were weighed and other tests applied, all in that 
impartial manner which characterizes the work of the colonel in the 
interests of the public, and by which details he attained to the 
trained knowledge of supernal phenomena by which all that he ex¬ 
perienced in my presence and around my personality was gauged 
and criticized. Not that he was an Adept in psychic lore, but had 
passed the limit of crass ignorance and was now prepared to find 
some truth in the Occult laws of being and take to heart a new and 
unexplored philosophy, and it was my mission in introducing the 
facts and phenomena to him to make him a mouthpiece to the pub¬ 
lic and mankind at large. 

Our time passed in the discussion of Spiritism from the stand¬ 
point of a full and limited believer in the power and also as skeptics 
as to much of the facts. The philosophy was not systematized at 
that time. Lecturers were adopting a crude philosophy from the 
fragments of their observations, and this was given to the Spiritists 
as being a full revelation, to be redrafted afterward and revised in 
the light of fresh phenomena and revealed phenomena. 

It has been stated in some publications that I did not know of 
the truth of reincarnation and the existence of my Masters, the Ma¬ 
hatmas, until afterwards in India, when the doctrine was introduced 
by me at the time when the messages were flying between Mr. Sin- 
nett and the Lodge, just then in its initial stages. The truth of re¬ 
incarnation was fully known to me before I left Russia, for the Llama- 
sary and the law of Karma, as explaining the responsibility of man 
for his acts, I had fully acquired at the same time; indeed, as many 
of the Neophytes were acquainted with the personality of many past 
lives and could see at times when in the true Yoghi state their future 
changes and sex personalities, it would be foolish indeed to say that 
they were unacquainted with the law. Much of their ratiocination 
was conducted with these laws for the foundation, and without which 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


109 


the same confusion of mental instability would accompany their 
findings in the realm of metaphysics as is found in the theology of 
their opponents. 

I did not at once bring these truths forward, as I had a difficult 
matter in hand to bring so quickly these Oriental truths to the in¬ 
fantile minds, already struggling in the intricacies of Spirit revelation 
after centuries of inhibited thought. 

I became very familiar with Colonel Olcott long before the time 
of my leaving Chittenden, and writing for the Russian and other 
papers constituted the source of my living, and these articles were 
much assisted by the ready rhetoric and literary style of Colonel 
Olcott, for I never professed to, bring to bear erudition in the pre¬ 
paration of my matter. I wrote from the heart, and the home jour¬ 
nals were very glad to have whatever I would send them; but I 
found in my new acquaintance a ready means of correcting my 
errors, due to the strange country and its customs and also to my 
imperfect knowledge of the language. 

One result of our meeting was the discussion of the great need 
for classes or societies for the study of chelaship and the preparation 
of the ego in man,— to accomplish mental attainments with refer¬ 
ence to the unfoldment of Spirit states and degrees. We had long 
talks about this, and deemed it necessary as an accompaniment to 
the great flow of phenomena then occurring, which was at times at¬ 
tributed to spirits and then again to men in the form, as was the 
case with Allen Kardec, M. S. Moses and many others who were in 
correspondence with us, especially in the case of Mr. Gerry Brown. 
I had long discussions about the matter and he agreed that the con¬ 
junction of the two powers was a vital necessity. Still nothing was 
done at this time, and leaving Vermont and the hosts, the Eddys, 
I returned to Philadelphia and took up again my own thread of life. 

Chittenden for some years continued its spread of phenomena, 
and in doing so gave force to the frequent prophecies which the 
intelligences gave us when I was at the settlement of the Shakers, 
for it was said then by Deer Foot, a brave of the Saganaws, that 
the power would not continue with the Shakers long, but would 
break out in the world among several and many mediums, who 
would demonstrate the fact of the continuity of life and man’s im¬ 
mortal heritage in the great beyond. 

I leave now the subject of Spirits and seances — they have had 
their share of attention — and show by what steps I attempted to 
teach metaphysical truth and learn all that Spiritism could give to 
me for the work which I still knew must be done by me. Dissen¬ 
sions were coming on between the skeptics and the believers in the 
Spiritistic ranks, and the difficulty was to speak intelligently and 


110 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


say anything in the nature of a friendly criticism about Spiritism and 
not enlist with the skeptics as adversaries. At this time I fully be¬ 
lieved in the necessity of frequent phenomena for the attracting of 
investigators to the new field of inquiry which would attempt to free 
men’s minds from bondage, but at the same time I knew that the 
revulsion from too much phenomena must inevitably take place 
among the intellectual ones, and unless they were held upon an in¬ 
tellectual plane and also one of metaphysical worth, they would 
drift into materialism again and the good work of the Spirit revela¬ 
tion would be undone and its effect lost forever. There was much 
schism among Spiritists, and varied sects and groups of believers. 
No two thought alike, and especially about the subject of materiali¬ 
zation there were two distinct factions. The success of each class of 
phenomena resulted in its antithesis — a grand exposure ! What 
was taught and demonstrated one day was undone upon the next; 
the enemies, attacking phenomena alone, could effectually disprove 
its facts; yet the tenets of a philosophy that rested upon intellect 
alone, or the prevision and clear-sighted view of the clairvoyance, 
could not be undone. So the doctrine of reincarnation, which ap¬ 
pealed to the inner mind and the instinct, when accepted, was not 
affected by the exposure of any class of phenomena. It was a 
truth if all materialization was false; it could be depended upon to 
satisfy the mind about the past existence and also the future, if ac¬ 
cepted, without reference to phenomena at all. So also with the 
idea of Karma, or man’s responsibility for his own conduct and 
acts, which was in direct contrast with the church idea of vicarious 
atonement, that had made of men for centuries wrong doers, with 
the perfect thought of escaping consequences by reason of the sac¬ 
rifice of a saviour for their redemption. To establish some form of 
work based upon an intellectual conception of the great laws and 
draw upon the ancient and Eastern forms of religious and legendary 
lore, to attain to a supremacy in the world of psychic endeavor and 
then let the mind unfold in its own method as led by its own in¬ 
stincts, seemed to be the solution of the varied difficulties. I will 
attempt to elucidate in what manner our collaboration grew until it 
finally established the well-known work of modern Theosophy, with 
the colonel and myself as its initial founders and with the ample 
assistance of my dear Brother William Q. Judge, who as much by 
his errors of judgment as by his unequalled Occult tendencies gave 
to the movement its primal efficiency. I will also mention my 
friend Elliot Coues, than whom there are none more able in the 
realm of intellectual endeavor who could bring that powder to a field 
of psychic work, and also his dear wife, my best friend, who came 
to me in many a trial and assisted me wdth counsel and advice. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSIvY. 


Ill 


CHAPTER VIII. 

FORMATION OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

Union Between Spiritists and Theosophists in Esotericism.—Thauma- 
t ui 'gy in Esse.—Llamasary in New York City, and the Mahatmas.— 
Isis Unveiled. 

“Nirmanakaya — a complete Buddha, Consciousness merged into 
the Universal, or soul devoid of every attribute of physical concern. 
Once a Dharmanakaya, an Adept or Buddha leaves behind every possible 
relation with]’or thought for this earth and its affairs. Thus, to be 
enabled to help humanity, an Adept, who has won the right to Nirvana, 
renounces all but the only and complete divine knowledge and remains 
in his Nirmanakaya body. Higher than these on account of the great 
renunciation and sacrifice for Mankind, there are none known.”— The 
Voice of the Silence. 

Divine wisdom is distinguished from mortal wisdom in its appli¬ 
cation to the needs and necessities of mankind. In the domain of 
everyday life, in the associations and affections of the mortal exist¬ 
ence, ordinary knowledge is sufficient; but when men are strug¬ 
gling to express soul longings and the attempt to find a way back to 
the common ancestry in the Spirit from which man has come, then 
the only wisdom is that of the Divine Father as is given through 
Spiritual sources. This is the divine lore or wisdom which is the 
only Theosophy of which anyone knows. 

Our first attempt to make an association of inquirers who at¬ 
tempted this ideal was due in a measure to the combined efforts of 
some Spiritists, Egyptologists, Kaballists and others of no known 
theory of inquiry. I can truthfully say that while I regarded the 
initial combination as sufficient to give the movement birth and 
life, yet I was fully aware of the tentative nature of the enterprise; 
there were not two of us who had any thought in common except 
perhaps the altruistic desire to devote our knowledge and energies 
for the benefit of students and Neophytes on the Occult Path. 

Of Mr. Henry J. Newton, perhaps more than any other at that 
time, I might explain that he was distinguished in the investiga¬ 
tions of mediums, and while he held tenaciously to the theory of all 
phenomena being the work of Spirits, yet he had become so fully 
awake to the crudities of Spiritism at that day that he was willing 
to welcome any effort wffiich had for its object the systematizing of 
the facts which were acquired in the pursuit of phenomena, and 
now began that struggle to explain the real meaning of the elemen- 


112 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


taries and their place and state in the working of thaumaturgic 
activities. 

It has never been contended, even by the most pronounced 
believer, that all Spirit phenomena is done by the Spirits themselves, 
and my desire to show that the electrical power was the inter-ele¬ 
mentary forces of Nature, acting with and under the Masters and 
coming in rapport with the dead, gave rise to the association with 
us in our new venture of a Mr. Feld and some Rosicrucians, who, 
in disguise as to their true standing as Occultists, were permitted to 
associate with us and for a time vivify our work. 

Mr. Henry J. Newton was a man who could do much with ardor 
and wealth, which were denied the rest of us, for we were distin¬ 
guished by only a sufficient allowance to enable the ordinary ex¬ 
penses of life to be met; so as much of our primordial efforts 
required finance, we were obliged to rely upon the one who had 
that substance to offer as their contribution to the allied effort. 

Mr. Feld desired to show that the elementaries could be evoked 
and made to answer the will of a mortal versed in Mantramic power 
as well as a Spirit could make use of the same natural force, and 
offered in some lectures to show that this could be done. I remem¬ 
ber as vividly as this moment the attempt and its failure, partly 
because the requisite harmony and unity could not be attained, and 
also because the currents of ideation at that time were not unified 
in the Western world. Mr. Feld having failed to show the exact 
element of power which these forces possessed, and Mr. Newton 
refusing to pay for the lectures which had been arranged for, the 
enterprise fell through, and thus I was left alone as the only expo¬ 
nent of ceremonial magic and the truths of incantations in the small 
circle which characterized our beginning. 

Having seen Mr. Feld’s attempt fail, I well knew what would 
become of my desire to unite with others if I attempted to impart 
even a small fraction of the knowledge that I possessed, and this 
is why with Olcott alone as a pupil I began to uncover the Theoso¬ 
phy of the Eastern world and attributed its activities to the Spirits, 
elementaries or Masters, or any other force or power which the 
student would acknowledge belief in. It was not of much moment 
at that time whether the force was believed to be this or that power 
so long as some power in Nature was partially unveiled and the 
mind led to look upon psychic forces in some direction instead of 
attributing all progress to a blind faith and the leadership of an 
annointed one. 

It would indeed be strange if I were to attempt to show that re¬ 
incarnation was a fact to one upon the very threshold of Divine 


HELENA PETKOVNA BLAVATSKY. 


113 


wisdom, after ages of spiritual authority and crass ignorance of the 
suburbs of spirit knowledge. 

I was obliged often to veil even the simplest fact, that the pupil 
might not be lost in the reverberations of a continual argumentative 
oratory, and even with William Q. Judge, whose Occult aspirations 
and his genius of continual application designed him undoubtedly 
as a leader of the students in the West, I had the most fervent diffi¬ 
culties. His display of show in mystifications often refuting the 
best findings of fact in Spirit divination, and his leaning toward a 
full reverence in the teachings of a guide at that time, disposed me 
even more than ever to disguise effectually all but the edges of the 
revelations of Theosophy as it afterwards was given. For a long 
time there was no activity with us except the phenomena given to 
Olcott and some of his intimate friends, and this was only done to 
show them that he was not under the spell of some evil-minded as¬ 
sociate and trickster, as was insinuated in those days. The phe¬ 
nomena which was given by me in my knowledge of the laws which 
governed it, was designedly shown to him, as his mind was latently 
intellectually able to comprehend and digest it; then he was to 
be the mouthpiece to the world, and his evidence was to be sup¬ 
plemented by that of other reputable and competent witnesses from 
time to time, so that the fact of Occult power and the divine forces 
of the soul latent in man could be demonstrated, and give rise to 
the ideal of a soul-powerful man rather than a medium, who was 
under the control of forces and powers which, while they were illus¬ 
trating a divine Spirit truth to the world, were also aiming to pro¬ 
duce, not the instrument, but the Master ! 

I could relate the whole substance of our early efforts in the 
direction of combinations, one with the other, at this time. It has 
been given by Colonel Olcott, in his “ Old Diary Leaves,” and by 
William Q. Judge, Dr. Hartmann and others, especially and most 
ineffectually by Mr. Arthur Lillie, whose attempt to depreciate my 
work and at the same time give evidence of its great spread and 
power, is, to say the least, absurd and showing merely the whim of a 
would-be critic and dilletanti in rhetoric. 

For a long time there was no substance to our efforts. People 
called and took up my time asking questions, and Spiritists reviled 
us, not for teaching what we did, but because anyone could find 
more in Nature than mere spirit raps and the fact of spirit forms, 
all of which we not only did not dispute, but believed more fully 
than the Spiritists themselves, for we knew the source of the power 
and could produce at will what with them was merely the combined 
production of their associated efforts. 


114 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


Finally the Spiritists left us. Mr. Henry J. Newton, whose mind 
was disposed to believe in Spirits being at the bottom of the entire 
movement, left us and examined other and various mediums. Mr. 
Feld left us also, and there was left only Judge, Olcott, Bettinelli 
and one or two others, and things drifted along until at the crema¬ 
tion of Baron de Palm we attained to some notoriety as furnishing 
the means of giving him the right of sepulture in this fashion, then 
an initial function in this direction; and as it was related that he 
had left us, the society, the sum of $20,000, people began to flock 
around us. The Spiritists could be heard giving credence to the ele¬ 
mentary theory of Spiritism, and for a time we had plenty of water 
to sail in. Even Mr. Feld was looked up, and the theories of Para¬ 
celsus and Egyptian Mantrams began to awaken attention; but I 
had had my lesson and determined to go along in my own way as 
before. True it was that to the efforts of myself and the colonel 
much of the prejudice to cremation was removed, and that we 
separately and individually, without one cent of funds expected, at¬ 
tended to the last rites of Baron de Palm as he wished and ordered, 
and also carried on the work of Theosophy out of our own pockets. 
Yet there was no end of abuse. The daily journals carried things to 
an extreme, and if the colonel had not been a brother journalist, I 
believe that we would have both been investigated by the savages 
of civilization at this time. 

I began writing “ Isis Unveiled,” and continued this for days, 
months and years, for hours together, and concentrated my attention 
upon it, intending to be heard at least by this form of intellectual 
endeavor, if by no other. I did not deny the efficacy of honest 
notoriety nor its use to us; but the mistakes, intentional and other¬ 
wise, that crept into the press articles, gave us all but the semblance 
of what our efforts made our due, and the public mind applied it in 
the way that it was written, so that in every manner we were re¬ 
garded differently from our true purpose. Many times I determined 
to give it all up and return home, and were it not for the fact that I 
knew Olcott and Judge must be maintained after they had gone so 
far into the thing, and if the public had not responded to our earn¬ 
est intentions in some small degree, I could not have continued. 
Instead of the least honest criticism, we were continually ridiculed 
and despised, as if we were doing some insensible thing instead of 
giving our attention to the one endeavor of a mortal’s life — the 
search for wisdom and knowledge of soul. The whole country 
seemed alive to all sorts of vices and trifles. Any charlatan could 
meet with approbation and acknowledgement, and yet we were 
striving to benefit men and do them the service to raise their state, 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


115 


show them a light in the universal darkness and a way to achieve to 
their true dignity as spiritual men. Still the whole country teemed 
with ridicule. 

1 his of course was due to the fact that the people had never 
thought for themselves, and were under the dictation of the clergy, 
public {opinion and the press. At first the elements of evil were 
disposed to simply ridicule us, but as we gained strength and Spirit¬ 
ism, which we were also identified with, continued to demonstate 
some other power in Nature than theology — admitted it was time for 
them to assail us, and my personality was pelted with mud over and 
over again, and only those of the strongest minds and the most in¬ 
vincible loyalty dared to come around me. 

Under stress of this great inimical force I was obliged to give the 
greatest deference to my chelas, or students. I could only lead them 
by degrees from the plane of Spiritistic endeavor and mediumistic 
accomplishment to understand that the soul of man was to be de¬ 
veloped upon a different plane and by the exercise of the Eastern 
rules of Yoghi and contemplative introspection, and not by sitting in 
the dark nor holding slates for hours at a time; not that these func¬ 
tions had not their sequence to those who were destined to develop 
in that way their mediumistic powers, but for those who were fitted 
to become the teachers of metaphysical laws and tenets of fact it 
was merely inviting delay and coming into the phenomenal plane 
by the back door. 

We had a small family of Theosophists on 47 th Street, at the 
Llamasary, and these were some of the happiest days of my life. 
Here occurred some of those most phenomenal details which my 
collaborator and associate, Colonel Olcott, has even at this length 
of time seen fit to corroborate, when he can no longer be said to be 
under my psychological influence. Our rooms were comfortable, 
and my callers of the reportorial staff and in all department of work 
gave me much time for elevating conversation and repartee, all of 
which I accepted good naturedly, and even when the abuse savored 
of rudeness I accepted it as the inevitable consequence of a pioneer 
in martyrdom and smiled away my chagrin. 

1 believe that it was the visit of the Mahatma in his Astral body 
which persuaded us that our work would lead us to India, and from 
that time Olcott gave me no rest until I had assented to the idea of 
travel to that country. There were reasons also of his own for wish¬ 
ing to leave America; his domestic affairs were in a complicated 
condition and his wife was sueing for a divorce, a common com¬ 
plaint among the married in mortal life, who do not make arrange¬ 
ment for magnetic changes of temperament, but, being bound by 


116 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


ignorant clergymen who have not the slightest acquaintance with 
any of the natural laws which govern man in his development, and 
by laws which are made in ignorance and mental sloth, men and 
women are obliged by a compact to live together after the use and 
necessity which has drawn them together has utterly deliquesced and 
vanished. To this reason and other domestic ones is due the resi¬ 
dence of Olcott in India and incited his travel at that time, and not 
to any influence of mine. I was fully aware that the work would 
become international in the course of time and that different indi¬ 
viduals would be led to take up their abode in various parts of the 
world, but I had no reason to urge the course of Olcott. In India 
travel and residence he desired to find his heart brothers, the Asia¬ 
tics, and among them his anticipated Guro, and wishing to help him 
in this and accomplish the unity of our Theosophical movement in 
geographical status, I acceded to his repeated requests and made 
arrangements for the journey. 

But it was some months after this that we actually began our 
voyage, and in the meanwhile the society which had been organized 
by Olcott as founder had its tentative existence with myself and 
himself as the sole members, and the chandelier, which heard all our 
conversations in extreme silence and which we regarded as the only 
friend upon whom we could depend for light and'assistance in our 
dark moments. 

All had deserted us under stress of public ridicule; not one was 
left. The Spiritists were angry to an extreme point at our schism, 
and in my replies in the press against Dr. Beard and others I had 
taken advantage to assail weak points in their philosophy and secure 
an opening for the doctrine of the seven-fold principles in man and 
the Pythagorean doctrine of numbers, chiromancy, the kaballa and 
the esoteric doctrines of the Essenes, bringing out much which was 
applicable at the moment. This was an unpardonable sin, and they 
continued to abuse and misunderstand all that I attempted to com¬ 
municate until we had left New York. But now I see that the lines 
of Spiritism have adopted exactly the things which were pointed out 
to them at that time. 

Undoubtedly I demonstrated to my heart colleagues that I was 
possessed of a power of apport of articles and the precipitation of 
messages which gave evidence of an intelligence that, if it existed, 
must inevitably have its effect upon all affairs of life. 

That such an effect could be studied by the application alone of 
the knowledge which the ancient races possessed, that in America 
there were no libraries which could throw any light upon affairs of 
Occult derivation, and that when the book of Isis was finished it 


HELENA PETROYNA BLAYATSKY. 


117 


would be better to attempt to unravel the mysteries of being in a 
land teeming with knowledge and memories of arhatship than among 
savages, who were but little more enlightened than their soil ances¬ 
tors, the North American Indians, and without that priceless intui¬ 
tion and magical knowledge which they had as the price of their 
savagery. 

I was followed by detractors everywhere, floods of lies were 
printed about us and the ones whom we came to help actually per¬ 
ished by the evils that we had described. 

Can it be said that I did not wisely in adhering to my absti¬ 
nence on original ethics — that I accorded Spiritism its full duty in 
delivering men from the thraldom of creeds, but limited its pre¬ 
rogatives in the domain of magic ? The facts of Spiritism were not 
only denied, but I did all that anyone could to sustain them up to 
that point where they were a positive benefit to the student. But 
when I saw error used to substantiate the philosophy, then it was 
due to my knowledge and training that I should intervene and 
attempt to lead the chela still further to the Truths which have 
stood, from the very days of antiquity till the present time, clamor¬ 
ing for admission into the rationale of daily life. 

I was able at this time to do a great deal on my book, and with 
Olcott correcting the proofs and interlining where my imperfect 
knowledge of the language made mistakes imminent, the time and 
hours passed. I smoked incessantly and to inoculate myself from 
the etheric evils which permeate the akasa in this alcholic country, 
where the ozone is surcharged with the animalculae of disease. 
Writing home at this time I gave a digest of my life of writing and 
the manner in which I was helped by the Mahatmas. Unquestion¬ 
ably I was seized with the faculty of writing, and what I lacked in 
facts were given to me instantaneously, but I will quote from my 
letter home to secure unanimity of literary exactness : 

“ Upon my word I cannot understand why you and the people 
generally should make such a fuss over what I may write, whether 
Russian or English. True, during these long weary years of my 
absence from home in foreign lands and among strange peoples I 
have studied constantly and have learned certain things, especially 
about the hobgoblins and spooks and their manner of communicat¬ 
ing with the world of mortals. What manner that may benefit me 
or those who are under my influence I cannot dare to realize or 
think of now. But while I am writing 'Isis Unveiled,’ I do it so 
easily that it is certainly no labor nor am I fatigued. I do not see 
why I should be praised for this. Whenever I am told to write or 
impressed to hold the pen, I sit down and obey, and then I can 


113 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


easily write upon almost any subject,— Parabraham, anthropology, 
metaphysics, esoteric psychology, ancient or modern philosophy, 
Aryan religions, natural sciences, sociology, or what not. I never 
think if I can write this or that article, but I simply sit down and 
write. Why? Because somebody who knows all dictates to me — 
my Master or higher Guro, and occasionally others whom I knew in 
my travels years ago. I tell you candidly that whenever I write 
upon a subject I know little or nothing of, I address myself to them 
and one of the Brothers inspires me. They allow me at times to 
simply copy what I write from manuscripts and some printed mat¬ 
ter that passes before my eyes in the air, during which process I am 
not unconscious a single instant. I am filled with the sacredness 
of the mission and all that the work implies to mankind, and this 
lifts me up and gives me an impetus that nothing mortal can tran¬ 
scend. It is that knowledge of his protection and faith in his 
power that has enabled me to become spiritually so strong; and 
even the Master is not always required, for during his absence on 
some other occupation he awakens in me his substitute in knowl¬ 
edge. At such times it is not I who writes, but my higher self or 
inner ego. I am solely occupied with writing Isis and also with 
Isis herself. I live in a sort of permanent enchantment — a life of 
visions and sights with open eyes and no trance state at all. I sit 
and watch the fair goddess constantly; and as she displays before 
me the inner meaning of her long-lost secrets and the veil, becom¬ 
ing with every hour thinner and more transparent, gradually falls off 
before my eyes, I hold my breath and can hardly trust longer to my 
senses. For several years, in order not to forget what I have 
learned elsewhere, I have been made to have permanently before 
my eyes all that I need to see. Thus night and day the silent 
images of the past are ever marshalled before my inner eye. Slowly 
and gliding silently like images in an enchanted panorama, centuries 
after centuries appear before me. I am made to connect these 
epochs with certain historical events, and I know that there can be 
no mistake. Races and nations, countries and cities emerge dur¬ 
ing some former century, then fade out and disappear during some 
other one, the precise date of which I am then told by Morio or 
some other of the Brotherhood. Hoary antiquity gives room to 
historical periods; myths are explained by events and personages 
who have really existed; and every important and often unimpor¬ 
tant event, every revolution, a fresh leaf turned in the life of nations 
— with its incipient course and subsequent natural result — remain 
photographed in my mind as though impressed in indellible colors. 

“ When I think and watch my thoughts they appear to me as 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


119 


though they were like those little bits of wood of various shapes and 
colors in the childish game known as the casse tete. I pick them 
up one by one and try to make them fit each other, first taking one 
and then putting it aside until I find its match, and finally there 
always comes out in the end something geometrically correct. I 
certainly refuse point blank to attribute it to my own knowledge or 
memory, for I could never arrive alone at either such premises or 
conclusions. I tell you seriously that I am helped, and he who 
helps me is my Guro.” 

If this does not remove all existing fallacies about the authorship 
of “ Isis Unveiled,” I do not see what can be added. Its reception 
by the public brought me the notoriety which was the very bane of 
my existence, and yet without it I could have done nothing. The 
volumes decided our American residence, and after they were fin¬ 
ished and some arrangements made, we sailed for India and took 
up an impermanent alliance with the Arya Samaj. The germs of 
our work were laid in the West and in the hands of Judge remained 
in statu quo, waiting for some activities in the East. Our society 
at this time consisted only of Olcott and myself, with Judge as as¬ 
sistant correspondent, and some few friends and advisers. I an¬ 
nulled my marriage with Mr. Bettinelli as soon as formed, and it 
was a relief to find quiet in the land of our heart Brothers, the con¬ 
templative Asiatics. 

The ruin and desolation in our ranks, brought about by endless 
personal ambitions, slanders and backbiting, had then no such sub¬ 
stance as afterwards. Our enemies at this time were the bigoted 
Spiritists, and the world of crass ignorance, the clergy and Christians 
generally. Afterwards, our enemies were of our own family — our 
members — those who had sworn allegiance to me and the altruistic 
cause. This matter will soon come before me and then I will have 
opportunity to explain as I have not before the crushing failure of 
our work to realize a permanent aggregation and results in the 
psychic field of metaphysical endeavor. It was this I gave my life 
for, and although all modern thought is tinctured with the result of 
our movement, and volumes of Occult literature are upon the 
shelves and in the minds of students throughout the universe—while 
men and women of the greatest prominence are at the helm and 
lifted up to understand our efforts — yet the bulk of the society is 
adrift and I shall explain this and give the remedy before this vol¬ 
ume is closed. It is for this that I take up my mission again from 
the Spirit world, to bring order out of chaos and attempt the solu¬ 
tion of present difficulties. 


120 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN INDIA. 

A. P. Sinnett.— Adyar.— The Shrine.—Flight.—Franz Hartmann, M.D. 
— The “Occult World,” Couloumb and S. P. R. Scandals, and In¬ 
cidents. 

Pursued everywhere by the calamitous essay of scandal, we at 
least were free in this country from newspaper persecution, but alas, 
after all that I had endured in America for my love of the Truth and 
the desire to serve as a beacon light to those in search of psychic 
powers and intellectual knowledge of the soul, I was destined to the 
greatest trouble and scandal with which the advent of modern The¬ 
osophy is so intimately associated, and this assisted and actually 
brought about by my collaborators and friends, those who had been 
my students and whom I had carried in the bosom of thaumaturgic 
investigation while in their mental swaddling clothes ! 

Oh, God alone knows what I have suffered. To begin with, we 
had the trouble with the Arya Samaj, Dayananda Suddhi Sarasvati, 
an old and antiquated priest who seemed like a piece of medieval 
architecture among the modern and savage styles of the Western 
civilization — an old Vedic Rishis forty centuries old, with a quaint 
notion of resurrecting the essence of Brahm from the fatalists among 
the Parsees and reviving the quaint and unintelligible legends of the 
Vedas and the Upanishads. Olcott had been an enthusiastic ad¬ 
mirer from America, and in his desire to come in contact with 
Eastern mysticism he mistook any old man with a beard and origi¬ 
nal views for a Mahatma. Although I repeatedly warned him that 
this man was a humbug, still he had such reverence for the man’s 
undoubted learning, his powers of Yoghi, and his perfect Oriental 
knowledge of the doctrines of Buddhi, that he fell under his influence 
and it took many interviews for Olcott to perceive that the aoms 
of our society and those of the Arya Samaj were not only identical 
but there was nothing cohesive about them. This brought about a 
disruption which added fuel to the storm of controversy which our 
departure from the Americas had started, and which grew as we 
came forth in our quest. We were roughly handled by Dayananda 
Sarasvati and in his own country, where all that saved us was the 
gentle natures of the Asiatics and the fact that the antagonist was a 
radical teacher and had at that time no following nor influence ex¬ 
cept among those who were widely separated and could not reach 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


121 


us with their envenomed sarcasm. It is quite true that Olcott was 
no match for this old pretender, well versed in all the literature and 
customs, schisms of radical castes and religious differences, with a 
perfect knowledge of the language and the advantage of the partisan 
bias which exists against all foreigners in India, especially those 
who come from so-called Christian lands. It required years for us 
to make them understand that we were against missions and the 
Christian propaganda, and before and at the outset of our Indian 
residence we had this prejudice to combat and the hatred of the 
intelligent population, who are ever against the iniquities of the 
missionaries and their vile methods and taints. 

It is quite true that we came to India to study and not to teach, 
but we were only prepared to study that which we did not already 
know, and it was no part of our plan to identify ourselves with a 
radical protest against Buddhism and Parsee worship, only to fall 
into a schism which was no more to our liking than would have 
been a regulation of the Salvation Army. 

Moreover, the Swami denounced all Occult phenomena as being 
quite impossible and in no way a discipline of the soul functions. 
After that, with our knowledge and intentions, a further union was 
impossible and we severed all relations without further discussion. 
Thus our correspondence was more than wasted. We were brought 
into a discussion with one of the learned men of India, even if his 
intentions were humbug, and, at the greatest disadvantage, retired 
from the contest. I must say that Olcott, while foolishly childish, 
was honest throughout, and preserved his part of the argument with 
precision. It was through this controversy that we met with Sinnett 
and Hume, a son of the famous reformer, Joseph Hume. We came 
into correspondence with the “ Pioneer,’’ an organ of the Bengal civil 
service, and in point of fact the leading journal of India, and Mr. 
Sinnett invited me to come and make him a visit, which I did with 
the colonel, and during this time the Mahatma gave every evidence 
of their power over space and matter, and through our acquaintance 
made the first impact which our society acquired by reason of the 
publications of the “Occult World” and the following volume of 
esoteric Buddhism, which, although full of the most glaring blunders 
and strange intellectual inconsistencies, brought the public into 
relations with the work and gave us the initial impulse which 
launched our Theosophical bark upon its troubled waters. Sinnett 
was an advanced Spiritist, fully alive to the dangers of medial 
assumptions in the spheres of philosophy, a keen observer of Occult 
phenomena and trained to distinguish between its vagaries of subtle 
inconsistencies. After Mr. Sinnett became convinced of the real 


122 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


facts of the marvels which were as commonplace to us as the day¬ 
light, he and Mr. Hume, as well as all the intelligent people whom 
we met, gave us the most ample support and backing. Mr. Hume 
presided at a meeting of the Theosophists and made a most telling 
speech, but he afterwards fell into the hands of the Philistines and 
retired to the obscure post of an apostate skeptic. 

Of course during the first visit to Sinnett he was expected to rain 
and flood with marvels, but the Mahatmas had first to train his mind 
to the reception of their philosophy and turn his tendencies from 
Spirits to men. This could not be done at once, and I gave the 
greatest attention to repeating most of the phenomena that he had 
seen with Spirit mediums, and then, advancing from it to a higher 
plane, brought him into contact with the correspondence with the 
Brotherhood, which became the foundations of the Theosophical 
movement. Mr. Sinnett was undoubtedly the clearest and best 
writer to be found who could bring the world into contact with the 
initial impulse of Theosophy and its Mahatmic backers. He had 
been trained in investigation of phenomena and could give his in¬ 
fluence and power to produce any writings necessary to illustrate the 
theories and ideas of the secret Brotherhood. Olcott’s testimony 
had lost most of its value; he was regarded at that time as a dupe 
of mine and so closely held under my influence as to believe anything 
which I could or would tell him. At this critical point, Sinnett, who 
had the post of an intelligent observer and of much influence among 
the countless thousands of Spiritists and free thinkers in Europe, 
and who had the possibility of publicity, a very necessary feature, 
was approached by the Masters, and through his organism and mine, 
assisted by the colonel, gave to the world the initial philosophy and 
ideas of modern Theosophy. This was the requirement of my visit. 
What did it matter if from the social standpoint I was in deliberate 
rebellion against the customs of refined society or was coarse of 
speech? I had not come as a guest to seek marriage or to show 
myself off as a trained diplomatic — a hypocrite in ethics of social 
intercourse. My power lay in honest conduct, and while I have 
often been accused of cheating by the ignorant pupil, yet where I 
could benefit myself by assuming a soft and polite manner, I pre¬ 
ferred to act as I felt and give the hyprocrite the knowledge that 
I read the heart and was not to be deceived by their sugar-coated 
airs. I made many enemies, and they associated together and 
sought my ruin. This led to the Madame Couloumb schism and 
trouble. She who had been always a great friend and had often 
given me funds to help me when I needed it, was so acted upon by 
these united inimical forces as to finally join with them and attempt 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


123 


to expose me, as they called it. They made me much trouble, and 
as the strength of the movement grew so did the jealousies and 
ambitions of the associated members and workers, until finally it 
resulted in the downfall of the initial attempt to engraft .the Theo- 
sophical activity in India, and I was obliged to leave in company 
with Franz Hartmann and seek safety from the accumulated troubles 
m seclusion and peace to receive the rest necessary to my existence. 
I will attempt to relate the real facts in the Couloumb trouble and 
how one of my friends, under the influence of the black magicians 
and my associated enemies and the missionaries of the Madras 
newspaper and their blackmailing efforts, finally turned against me 
and manufactured a whole tissue of evidence about the phenomena 
and its reality. 

There were now so many of us always travelling about and living 
here and there that it became a serious matter how to accommodate 
ourselves to circumstances. Taking advantage of an offer of a lady 
who was formerly a resident of a suburb of Madras, I was able to 
obtain a palace at Adyar for our united family. After the Suez 
Canal was built and in operation, the suburb of Madras, which was 
the residential situation of the wealthy occupants of Madras in the 
hot season, known as Adyar, lost its prestige. It was seven miles 
from Madras, and this city, losing its harbor vitality, ran down in 
trade and riches so that most of the people in active business moved 
to Calcutta and elsewhere. This so depreciated the suburban 
property at Adyar that large and handsome places had no occupants 
nor purchasers; we were able to obtain by our united efforts these 
headquarters for a very small sum, and to obviate the necessity for 
housekeeping separately we all joined in a communal residence and 
lived upon a common fund. Olcott and some of them desired to 
attempt to practice a vegetable existence — an effort which was 
always preached in theory by me, but which I could never accustom 
myself to. My cuisine made such a difference to them that I had a 
separate table and could get meals and such as I wished at any time 
and not at the time that the group of F. T. S. ate together. More¬ 
over, it was designed to attempt to separate me from some of the 
household who, although of us, were inimical to our efforts and de¬ 
sired to ruin us at the first chance. To overcome this influence 
and have two domestic functions, it became necessary to have some¬ 
one to oversee the housekeeping and cooking departments of the 
community. Candidates were constantly arriving now from all 
parts of the world. Adyar was seven miles from all hotels and res¬ 
taurants. We were obliged to feed them and lodge them at least 
for some days or weeks, and it required a trained housekeeper to 


124 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


attend to it. After much consultation I sent for Madame Couloumb 
and her husband — he being a talented housesmith and carpenter, 
and I believed could attend to some alterations which I contem¬ 
plated in the inner arrangement of the premises. So it was my 
own doings that they came to Adyar and took up their residence 
with us. Madame Couloumb was a Roman Catholic and did not 
actually believe in any form of mediumistic phenomena or psychic 
possibility. She was a good-hearted woman of small mentality, and 
could never think but that everyone required the services of a priest 
or confessor. It is quite true that, seeing the numerous manifesta¬ 
tions, she was obliged to confess that they were beyond her knowl¬ 
edge or power, but she attributed them to the devil and there let 
it rest. But she was an excellent cook and house servant, and as 
we wanted her for that purpose it was sufficient, and she came to 
us in that capacity. 

Having had an acquaintance with me formerly in Cairo and at 
Paris, and having seen some form of medial activities, she was in 
much request among the fresh arrivals to tell them about my affairs, 
my relations with the colonel and all those details of a domestic 
nature which they themselves could not actually ask me. 

Finding herself of great importance as a gossip, Madame Cou¬ 
loumb fell into the trap, and, accommodating herself to the desires 
of her listener and questioner, she would insinuate herself in their 
graces by standing for me, or more often she would give her own 
convictions that it was all fraud, and, to prove it and make herself 
more important, tell how she herself and her husband would help to 
manufacture the phenomena, all of which would be swallowed by 
the willing listeners and believed. For was not madame always 
there to see, and did she not know from a disinterested standpoint? 
Being jealous of me also — as all ignorant people are of that which 
they cannot understand — she attempted to not only break up the 
movement but to affiliate with our enemies in power and promi¬ 
nence, the Christian eagle at Madras, and she entered into a con¬ 
spiracy to obtain money by exposing me and stating that she was 
being used to supplement the real phenomena with fraudulent ones. 
With what success you already know, those of you who are conver¬ 
sant with the details of Theosophic effort at its initial impulse. That 
she failed is a wonder, considering that even Olcott himself gave 
money to Couloumb under the impression that she could tell about 
my affairs if she only would. Besides this, many of those who failed 
to placate me and make me their willing attendant for the further¬ 
ance of their personal schemes, and most of them who came to us, 
were designing to use the prominence of the society for their own 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


125 


personal aims and ambitions. Others desired to come under the 
influence of the work for reasons which were of the most selfish 
nature. Naturally I raved and stormed. I was beset by them for 
some manifestations all the time. I turned them over to Madame 
Couloumb in a fit of splenic heroism, and when she told them that 
I cheated I affirmed it, and told them that it was done to prevent 
them from believing. Olcott turned some of them out of the soci¬ 
ety, and it would have been a good thing if he had turned out all 
the rest. 

Associated with the Couloumb incident, and a collateral means 
for the furtherance of my enemies’ plans, was the invitation of 
Colonel Olcott to the Society for Psychical Research to send out 
an agent to investigate the character of the phenomena for which 
he and Sinnett stood sponsor. This completed his idiocy. Ex¬ 
pressly against my wishes and commands this Hodgson came; I 
knew it was the beginning of the end. 

I had the greatest trouble now. First Olcott would side with the 
enemies — in his estimable character of an honest man, which he 
carried to the point of self-destruction. To relieve himself of the 
charge of being a dupe of mine, he thought it would be a good 
thing if the Mahatma would continue the phenomena that occurred 
in his presence and that of Mr. Sinnett and the others, in the pres¬ 
ence of a competent agent of the S. P. R., who would, in standing 
for the phenomena, induce many converts and give a fresh impetus 
to the movement and carry conviction to the minds of the chelas by 
the hypnotic force of numbers and the power of the majorities of 
those who would be affiliated with us in the event that he felt sure 
would occur,— the prompt belief of the agent. He never seemed 
to think that the agent might not believe for reasons of his own. 
Olcott was so honest and straight that he could not imagine that 
other reasons than telling the truth would enter into the affair upon 
the part of an investigation committee, or some one in their behalf. 

Hodgson came, and this gave the Couloumb incident its needed 
impulse and added to the conviction that they were being cheated 
upon the part of the many people who, attracted to Adyar by the 
constant publicity and with no other motive than curiosity, knew, 
felt and believed that the whole philosophy and work rested upon 
no other foundation than a constant flood of phenomena. To create 
a positive element of resistance to our success seemed the one thing 
worth striving for, and even our friends at times seemed to come 
under this influence and would leave us entirely in sentiment and 
give their attention to the plaudits of disbelief. 

Hodgson was one of those small men who, being in a new move- 


126 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


ment, was disposed to make an important position out of his official 
activities and it did not matter to him whether the Truth was served 
or not. I refused point blank to see him upon his arrival, and this 
added to the fund of discontent. Knowing so well that the Masters 
did not intend to exhibit their powers for the mere curiosity of an 
agent of a society whose real purpose was merely to discountenance 
the work and growing success of psychical discoveries and our 
grand teachings, and who desired merely to throw mud at us and 
the age of inquiry, at the head of which we had now no difficulty in 
maintaining our supremacy, I felt that any attempt to deal with 
Hodgson would make the matter still worse. So, baffled in his 
attempt to catch me in making phenomena, as I gave none at all 
while he was there, he conducted his investigation by examining all 
the scandal-mongers among us at that time and each one seemed 
to have something to say. Olcott was away on another fruitless ex¬ 
pedition to find the Mahatmas face to face, and I was left alone to 
resist the accumulating mass of criticism. With Mohini to back me 
and Hartmann for conspirator and ally, I felt safe for a time, but being 
apprised of the deliberate purchase of Madame Couloumb for a 
specified sum to expose me and testify that she knew that the 
Occult facts were based upon fraud, with the further design of sup¬ 
plementing the work by having it carried on by her husband and 
herself with the phenomena wholly eliminated, which was promised 
her besides the money, I finally felt the plot thicken to such an ex¬ 
tent that it was no surprise when I received orders from “ Master ” 
to leave Adyar and take up my residence upon an island in the south 
of Italy. 

I believe that all of the phenomena would have passed safely 
without bringing me so much trouble were it not for the fact that 
the publicity and growing belief in its verified accuracy was begin¬ 
ning to have its effect. Scientific journals everywhere were begin¬ 
ning to write about these marvels, and especially when the Mahara¬ 
jah of Wudhwan invited us to his palace that he might have an 
opportunity of communicating with the Kashmir brothers. His evi¬ 
dent kindness to me and the published reports of the occurrences 
there drove all frantic with jealousy; it seemed as though they were 
lashed to a perfect frenzy not to acquire the power, but to either 
show that it was fraud or that they could do the same things them¬ 
selves — not to teach a truth but merely to be invited out. 

To illustrate in what manner phenomena was received by this 
chief I will relate about our reception there, with Dr. Hartmann, 
Mohini, Baboula, my body servant, and Madame Couloumb. 

His Royal Highness met us at the station himself, escorted by 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 127 

his body guard, and I well can remember the great fuss that the 
papers made of this incident, for these officials are as chary of 
favors and attention as a reigning sovereign in Europe. To me, 
especially, he was most kind and benignant, and gave me his hand 
to kiss. He had us taken to a palace and an outside kiosk which 
had been fitted up for the occasion and decorated in a most beauti¬ 
ful and appropriate manner. I must say that his highness was most 
liberal. He gave orders that we were to be provided with every¬ 
thing that we might require, and indeed we had greatly more than 
w r as required. He sent my servant a donation, and to Madame 
Couloumb he gave a small jeweled casket, filled with some articles 
of Indian manufacture. 

And now for the phenomena which occurred upon this occasion 
and which was the final element which drove me out of India, and 
it was the occasion of Madame Couloumb finally going back upon 
me and giving the wrong construction to all that she knew of me 
and the work since she had unfortunately had the opportunity of 
observing it. 

His highness asked me to try and obtain for him some words 
from a chief who had gone into the wilderness of Coparnagtha, an 
interior province of India, and one which had a sacred character, 
being under the tutulary protection of a set of phallic influences 
which guarded it from all but those who were desired within its 
sanctuary. 

Understanding all this, and with a desire to bring him some 
message, I, upon the day selected, sat with him in the room in the 
palace, and after sitting some minutes he rose, and going to a small 
miniature plaster cast of one of the obelisks of the Pharoahs, found 
within it a note containing the desired information. 

It was necessary to break the obelisk into small pieces to extract 
the note, as it was actually within the interstices of its conforma¬ 
tion, and this was done in the presence of all present. 

So pleased with this was the Maharajah and his staff of guards 
that he made me a present upon leaving of R’s 500, and suspecting 
some treachery upon the part of Madame Couloumb, who had also 
asked him openly for some money, he handed it to me himself 
in through the carriage window as the tram was leaving the station. 

This disposes of the story that she and Olcott got up that I was 
unsuccessful at the palace and was obliged to leave in disgrace. 

I had been so unfortunate as to have required some money of 
Madame Couloumb in Cairo, and she loaned it to me with the 
greatest protestation of friendly regard; had this not been so, I cer¬ 
tainly should have been obliged to ask her to leave headquarters, 


128 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


but she and her husband were members of the society, and not 
under any circumstances could we treat her badly, even with the 
standing of a traitor. I made the best of it as long as I could, but 
while she was actually obtaining power over the chelas, and in the 
case of Lane-Fox making them perform the most imbecile tricks, I 
could do nothing at all. My influence was gone with them and all 
that I could do was to watch from my window the antics of the 
skeptics and the growing influence for evil of Madame Couloumb. 

In order to come into intercourse with Master and his holy influ¬ 
ence and to perfect the battery of power to receive the messages 
from the Brotherhood, I had ordered a place to be made wherein I 
could place my note or that of the chela containing the request for 
enlightenment, or some question of personal importance, and it 
would be taken away and an answer left in its place or there would 
be an answer upon the margin of the note. These communications 
were of such volume now that I was compelled to institute some 
system by which they could be maintained without in each case 
troubling me. 

I had M. Couloumb make me a shrine of well-seasoned wood 
and which I had sanctified and smoked in sandal wood oils and 
other incantations, and which was made so that I could have access 
to it from my room, and also another opening for the use of the 
colonel and the household. 

There was nothing suspicious about this shrine, and besides the 
chelas had to depend upon the substance of the messages received 
and not upon my integrity nor good will. It was perfectly under¬ 
stood by those amongst us who received and maintained communi¬ 
cations with the Brothers that the substance of the message was 
everything, and not the manner of its phenomenal delivery. 

In some cases I had to write the message out with my physical 
hand and in others there was a show of independent delivery, but 
of such a subtle flavor that it could not be said other than that I 
handed it to the chela myself with my own physical hand, so that 
the fact of the shrine having two openings was well known among 
us of the household and it was not thought anything of. 

I often put in something which I wanted “ Master ” to magnetize 
and would let it remain until it was permeated with the influence 
and then would remove it. Others asked permission to place arti¬ 
cles in the shrine to see if they would be noticed by the Brothers. 
When Judge was with us he often placed articles or questions in the 
shrine and received answers and practical details of management, so 
that it was of no consequence to any of us that the shrine had two 
fronts or openings, and there was no attempt to conceal this fact. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


129 


Madame Couloumb was detected in the act of opening some of 
the letters of Lane-Fox and substituting orders from the Brothers 
to suit her own purposes, and then resealing them and placing them 
back. I found her out several times in this and gave her a sharp 
reprimand, but to my astonishment found that Colonel Olcott had 
given her permission to use the shrine for him and some others of 
the headquarters. This breach of good faith made it more impos¬ 
sible than ever for me to attempt to maintain the work. At this 
time, appealing to “ Master,” he, with the wisdom of Solomon, 
“ ordered ” that the shrine be opened to Madame Couloumb and 
that she should have the sole charge of it. I did not at once ap¬ 
preciate in what manner this would serve me but afterwards saw the 
extreme and supernatural wisdom of it, for now having the charge 
of it given to her, Madame Couloumb wrote indiscriminately such 
messages as would bring her into greater and further reaching power 
and bring the influence which she possessed over her captives, such 
as Lane-Fox and Mrs. Corinth, at an end, for they found that her 
answers did not possess that element of truth and applicability which 
made them valuable, and thus the shrine fell into disrepute. I 
had my messages come in my own hand and I gave them to the 
ones they were intended for; but fortunately now the fact of com¬ 
municating ceased almost, and I had only to prepare for the end of 
my visit to India and the separation of myself and Colonel Olcott. 

Although we were hand and hand in the work, still there were 
constant details of friction and more or less violation of orders. He 
would conceive that he had a revelation himself from the Brothers 
and would proceed to execute it without consulting me, whereas it 
came from his own sphere of thought and was applicable only to his 
own conception of the work and its immediate present. 

The consuming jealousies and vanities of the “ Fellows ” of the 
society was a growing evil and one which we could not eradicate. 
So much show and teaching—I never saw the like. Each one wanted 
to teach the other, none wanted to learn. All expected to be the 
one favorite of the Mahatmas, and it was useless to explain that 
these individuals had no respect for personalities nor social prestiges. 
It was inconceivable that such a motley assemblage of people could 
be gotten together under any circumstances, and their wants were 
legend. One lady wanted to have the Mahatmas advise her daily 
of her husband’s doings in California, and if he was true to her. 
Another wanted me to obtain the secret of perpetual youth for her 
and some of the water of a sacred spring, of which she had heard, 
in the middle of a desert in Asia, one drop of which would restore 
the physical form to its most beautiful period and keep the ego em¬ 
bodied for all eternity. 


130 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


I had several communications from men of science stating that 
they would believe in me and my work and endorse it if I would 
obtain for them the location and deposit of secret treasures. Some 
of these even specified what treasure they wanted. One in partic¬ 
ular wanted the geographical location of the island from which the 
elder Dumas obtained the Monte Cristo fable of immense secreted 
gems and precious stones, with fabulous wealth of gold and other 
metals. 

A most interesting letter came from Naples, desiring me to make 
a company of people to find by supernatural force and power the 
location of what wealth Napoleon had secreted before his downfall 
and incarceration. This promised me a share of the profits but gave 
no amount. 

One man wanted the address of a lost wife or son, and some 
woman desired to find who had stolen jewels or where a favorite son 
was, if alive; and if dead, the location of the body. 

The “ flapdoodles ” were growing up on every hand. There was 
no idea of sacredness nor real feeling for development and changes 
of conduct. All were in pursuit of some personal preferment and 
wanted to use my power for their selfish aggrandizement. 

Persons with a superstitious reverence for the Bible, or some 
fable of primitive Christianity, would approach these sublime Truths 
with the asinine familiarity of monkeys and ask things of the Adepts 
which they would not even listen to. Of all the members there 
were none who were not in some degree afflicted with these fancies; 
none of them seemed to be without a continuing attachment for 
ordinary trifles, and even Dr. Franz Hartmann would sit for hours 
and brood after a wife left in the States and her lost affections. Ab¬ 
sorbed in these trifles, how could anyone expect to develop upon 
the Occult Path — a Path requiring the extinction of all self and a 
constant and absorbing trust in Truth alone ? 

It is no wonder that I became immersed in myself and would 
gladly have given the whole work up. Many times I sat brooding 
in deep thought and striving to consider in what manner good could 
result from this heterogeneous mass and accumulation of curiosity 
seekers and the rabble of the entire world. There was not one per¬ 
son among them all but Mohini and Olcott who were alive to any¬ 
thing Occult. Dr. Hartmann was still in the thraldom of Spiritistic 
inquiry and devoted to the chemicalization of the Rosicrucians and 
their theories. With Paracelsus in one hand and the other in that 
of some woman whom he had in tow, the hours were passed. True 
he did help me and in many ways, but he and Judge came almost 
into open conflict more than once. Hartmann also was always in 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


131 


conflict with the exoteric management of Olcott, and as the Brothers 
did write constantly to Hartmann after he came and rather asked 
for his opinion and judgment, it excited the jealousy of the others 
and made my life almost unbearable. That I was rendered excit¬ 
able and stormy by this constant friction, is it not to be wondered 
at. Without my strong temper and passionate resentment of all in¬ 
terference with my plans and work, there would be even less Theos¬ 
ophy than there is now. 

I had one confidant throughout all this mass of intrigue and 
hypocrisy, and this was the good Damodar. He was a chela of high 
standing in the outer Brotherhood, and Master had sent him to me 
to overlook all affairs at headquarters. It was through his watchful¬ 
ness that I kept fully apprised of the state Of affairs, and the poor 
boy would watch all night to secure some temporary advantage over 
our enemies. 

I had one of the upper rooms on the first pavilion, above the 
terrace, which I selected to secure the upper currents without any 
interference; and here I sat, regardless of the commotion down 
stairs, among the evil passions and ambitions of the new members 
and the various arrivals to secure the baptism of the new faith. 

I cannot pass on without mentioning the devotion of Mrs. Cooper 
Oakley at this time. In all the trouble of her heart’s first affection, 
she nursed me with unremitting ardor, and it is due to her skill and 
consolations that I was enabled to leave Adyar and seek peace and 
rest in the seclusion of temporary incognito. 

It has been of so much wonder that my friends stood by me in 
reference to the phenomena when so much was done to dispute it; 
but this is readily explained. Our enemies made no attack upon 
the occurrence of any phenomena except that which they could find 
explanation for. Now Olcott had most of his correspondence from 
the Brotherhood when I was many miles off, and so had Hartmann 
and the others. Again, many of the chelas were advanced Occult¬ 
ists and mediums and had similar phenomena long before they came 
to me; thus even if the shrine was entirely fraudulent and its use 
in the nature of a physical substitute for psychic means, it did not 
tend to explain what was given. 

When the shrine was attacked during my occupancy of the 
premises the letters came in the open air outside the buildings, and 
when it was alleged that the trees were rigged with strings, the 
Masters sent them under the canopy of the clear sky, or, failing this, 
placed the communications in the inside of the hand of the chelas 
or recipient. Of course this was unknown to the skeptics and they 
wondered not a little to see the continuing and growing faith of the 


132 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


converts, whose belief was not affected by their animadversions. Our 
enemies received nothing, so that for a long time they were in igno¬ 
rance of what was actually going on. So the attack on the shrine 
failed utterly, for it was not in use by me for a month before it was 
exposed. But the Couloumb letters were being given every day up 
to the time of the Hodgson exposure, and it was undoubtedly 
arranged by Mr. Couloumb so that the exposure would ruin me. 
Little did these attacks effect their purpose; my friends remained 
steadfast and became greater in numbers, while our enemies only 
attracted to them those who were worthless to themselves or any 
cause. 

In the midst of all this confusion Hodgson came. He made no 
examination of me nor of anything but the shrine, but heard the 
scandal of the rabble. Upon the strength of their statements and 
what he could see himself in a perfectly untrained condition, Hodg¬ 
son, with a bias against all phenomena, reported that there was 
nothing occurring but fraud, and made of himself a bigot among the 
intelligent observers at the headquarters. Far from gaining any 
support from those who were inimical to me, they one and all left 
him and returned to me anyway, and for this reason we had philos¬ 
ophy and Truth, and these stood for what they were worth to intel¬ 
ligent minds even if every circumstance of phenomena was fraud. 
Reincarnation and the doctrine of A’ves’a or the metempsechosis 
with the doctrine of Karma would have effectually maintained us as 
a body of philosophically inclined students, and we were all in uni¬ 
son on that point, but it was necessary to create a noise and have 
the Truth reach out and seek those who were inclined to affiliate 
with us, and this could not be done without some feature of Occult 
phenomena which kept us constantly alive and before the gaze of 
an inquiring public. 

Two incidents more and then this part of my memoirs is finished 
with all of the inner causes of our perturbation at this most interest¬ 
ing period of our career as iconoclasts and constructors. 

I wrote a letter to Monsieur and Madame Couloumb from Paris 
in the time when I sojourned there after my departure from India, 
which explains the attitude of myself and the colonel in regard to 
the Hodgson investigation, and this I will repeat. It bears dis¬ 
tinctly upon the situation as it was, and I cannot after this interval 
explain more fully than I did then to anyone who is not prejudiced 
by a skeptical attitude of mind. 

The letter: 

“ I take the trouble to address this letter to you both, because I 
believe it well that you put your heads together and think seriously 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


133 


about it. I have not been able to write to you before — I have 
been much too ill and weak for that. I am obliged to copy exact 
passages from several letters which I have just received from Adyar. 
There extracts will be lengthy. I will not dwell upon what is then 
said respecting Madame Couloumb and Mr. Brown, who (you) in 
his case as you did in that of Hartmann, ‘ tries her best to under¬ 
mine the power of the united Theosophists, by talking scandal and 
untruths to them as to its merits and intentions as a society.’ All 
of that may or may not be serious and important. Neither is what 
Mr. Lane-Fox says in his letters; but only see what is added : * She 
(Madame Couloumb) opposes everything that is intended for the 
benefit of the society. But these are perhaps trifling things which 
I might easily counteract. More serious is the fact that she says 
that she lent you money in Egypt! (That I have never hidden ; I 
have told it to everybody, and at the time of the Wimbridge-Bates 
tragedy I announced publicly that I was under obligations to you, 
since when no one would aid me — me a stranger in Cairo and with 
no home and friends. You alone, and M. Couloumb, helped me — 
gave me shelter, loans of money, etc. I have always said more even 
than you really did. Well, I continue my copying) : ‘ She says that 
the money was never repaid ; that M. Couloumb has been construct¬ 
ing secret trap-doors for the producing of phenomena, to support our 
society and make disciples: that she could tell the Lord knows what 
if she wanted to; and, lastly, her foolish assertion that the Theo- 
sophical Society was founded to overthrow British rule in India. 
Madame Couloumb, ever since I have had the sorrow of knowing 
her, expressed it to be her greatest wish to get sufficient money to 
go to some other place, and in furtherance of this primal object she 
begged ^2000 rupees from Hurrusingjee. She has told me many 
times that if she had 2000 rupees she would go like a shot. Mr. 
Lane-Fox has offered to give her the 2000 rupees, or provide for 
her in any other way that she wishes ; but now she suddenly changes 
her attitude and insists upon staying, saying that she has a paper 
from Colonel Olcott in which he offers her a home in Adyar for life, 
and that she has positive orders from you (orders !) not only to re¬ 
main here during your absence, but also to help herself from the 
funds of the society whenever she should want money to buy dresses 
or other things for herself or husband.’ Is it, then, because I have 
really said and repeated to you, before Olcott and others, that you 
both, being Theosophists and friends, had the right to spend the 
money of the society for your dress and necessary expenses, that 
you are saying to them that M. Couloumb has constructed secret 
trap-doors, etc.? 


134 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


“ Oh, Madame Couloumb, what, then, have I done to you that 
you should try to ruin me in this way, and bring scandal upon the 
heart wish of my life? Is it because for four years we have lived 
together, helping each other to meet the troubles of life, and because 
I have left everything in the house in your hands, saying to you con¬ 
tinually 4 take what money you need,’ that you seek to ruin me in 
the minds of those who, when they turn their back on me, will turn 
their back on you first, and although you will gain nothing but the 
loss of friends who would otherwise always have aided you? How 
can I believe that Madame Couloumb will so dishonor her husband 
and herself? Those who write to me and the colonel also say that 
* Her object in doing so looks as though she wanted to get money 
from Mr. Fox and remain here,’ and a lot more which I am unwill¬ 
ing to transcribe. I am keeping the letters and if we meet again 
you shall see them. They add : ‘ Furthermore, we have sufficient 
evidence through herself that she is made use of by black magicians, 
not only to interfere with the welfare of the society, but especially 
to exert a poisonous and detrimental influence on Damodar. As 
to her being an enemy of the society, she does not even attempt to 
deny it.’ 

“ Further on it is said that M. Couloumb says the same things as 
his wife. I do not believe it! You are too honest a man, too 
proud, to do such a thing. You are ready to kill a man when in a 
rage. You will never lay an accusation against him ! You would 
not accuse him in secret before his friends. And if Madame Cou¬ 
loumb, who would not do an injury to a fly — who has so much love 
for the very beasts — has done so, it is because she is sick and does 
not know what she says, and does not think of the frightful harm she 
is doing to those who have never done anything to her and the harm 
that she does to herself and to all. 

“ Why does she continue to hate me ? What have I done to 
her? I know that I am bad-tempered, violent, that without intend¬ 
ing it I have perhaps offended her more than once. But what evil 
have I done to her? Since our arrival at Adyar I have ever truly 
and sincerely loved her, and since my departure I have thought only 
of buying her something at Paris which she needed, and of how I 
could put you in possession of 2000 or 3000 rupees in order that she 
might go and reside at Ootacamund for the summer, or go and 
reside elsewhere and keep a boarding house, or indeed do anything 
for herself and you. I have never been ungrateful, never a traitor, 
my dear M. Couloumb. And you, Madame Couloumb, do not say 
that you have never said this, as in the case of Hurrusingjee, for see 
again what that poor boy Damodar says, who has written a most 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


135 


despairing letter. I copy again: ‘ I am between the horns of a 
dilemma. . . . Master tells me that Madame Couloumb must be 
treated with consideration and respect, and on the other hand she 
tells me, and has been saying to everyone, that you are a fraud — 
performing all your phenomena by physical means, assisted by M. 
Couloumb. This she did not assert to me but only insinuated,’ etc. 

“Well, now, what do you say to all that? What end do you 
expect to gain, Madame Couloumb, by allowing people to believe 
of you that which you are incapable of doing, i.e., of employing 
black magic against a society which protects you, which works for 
you, if you have worked for it (and God knows the obligations 
which we owe to you, M. Couloumb, for all that you have done for 
us since we came to Adyar) ? That you have worked for us I say 
aloud, and that, working, you have a right to our gratitude and to 
your clothing and food and to live at the cost of the society as far 
as its funds allow — I say it again. But what purpose have you in 
going and vilifying me secretly to those who love me and believe in 
me ? What vengeance have you against me ? What have I done 
to you, I ask again ? What you do will never ruin the society—only 
me alone at the most in the estimation of my friends. The public 
has always looked upon me as a fraud and an imposter. By talk¬ 
ing and acting as you are doing you will only gain one end, that is, 
people will say that you are also a fraud; and worse than that, that 
you did for your own interests what I have not done for myself* 
I give all that I have to the society since I give my life to it. They 
will say that you and M. Couloumb have helped me, not for the 
sake of friendship (for you prove by your accusations and denunci¬ 
ations that for some reason unknown to me you hate me), but in 
the hope of ‘ blackmailing,’ as one of the letters to Olcott puts it. 
But that is dreadful. You are truly sick. You must be so to do as 
foolishly as you are doing ! Understand, then, that you cannot at 
this hour of the day injure anyone; that it is too late; that similar 
phenomena and more marvellous still (letters from the Mahatma 
Koot Hoomi and from the Master) have happened when I was a 
thousand leagues away; that Mr. Hume at Simla, Colonel Strange 
at Kashmir, Sinnett in London, Queensbury in New York and Gil¬ 
bert in Australia have received a circular letter in their rooms, when 
alone, in the writing of the Mahatma. Where, then, were the trap¬ 
doors (?) constructed by M. Couloumb? Find one out really and 
it will reflect most upon you, the principal actors, and poor me. 
People who have seen the Mahatma before them in Australia and 
London as at Adyar, who have received letters from him in his 
handwriting, in reply to their letters written two hours before, will 


136 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


not believe you, nor could they believe you; and remember that if 
I was twenty thousand times exposed, detected and convicted of 
imposture, like the poor mediums have been so it is always alleged, 
all that would indeed be nothing to the cause, to Truth. So, then, 
if by accusing myself publicly and proclaiming myself a fraud in all 
the papers, I can thus do good to the society and make the venera¬ 
tion for the Mahatmas the greater still, I shall do it without the 
moment’s hesitation. I will spend myself for that cause which you 
hate so much. And who, then, has been the fraud when (I being a 
thousand leagues away) Hurrusingjee has a reply to his letter which 
he had put into the shrine, and Srinavas Rao also, as they have 
written to me from Adyar? Is it you who have written in the 
handwriting of the Mahatma, and you also who have taken advan¬ 
tage of a trap-door? All the evil proved will be that you have never 
wished to believe that there were true Mahatmas behind the curtain, 
that you do not believe the phenomena real, and that is why you see 
tricks in everything. Ah, well, I give myself to the grace of God ! 
Accuse me ! denounce me ! ruin H. P. Blavatsky, who has never 
hated or betrayed you, who almost ruined the society at its first ap¬ 
pearance in Bombay in order to sustain and protect you in opposi¬ 
tion to all, even the colonel, and that when she was not able to do 
it without danger to herself. Do it, my good friend, but remember, 
you who speak so much of God and of Christ, that if there be a 
God He will assuredly not reward you for the evil which you try to 
do to those who have never done anything to you. You may say 
what you please, but a living person is always more than a dog or 
beast in the economy of Nature. Mr. Lane-Fox and the board of 
trustees appear to have made changes in the house — sending away 
the coolies and the dogs too ! And it seems that Madame Couloumb 
attributes that to me ! Ah, well, you are altogether wrong. All 
that the board of trustees arranged the last day at Bombay, when, 
having received the news of the death of my uncle, I took no part. 
I did not even know what they had done. It was the colonel, Dr. 
Hartmann and Mr. Lane-Fox who arranged and carried out every¬ 
thing. It is only to-day that I have made the colonel explain the 
thing to me. I have even asked that they should nominate M. 
Couloumb as one of the trustees, so much do I need them to build a 
room. The colonel has not answered either yes or no, and to-day 
he reproached me again with having, along with M. Couloumb, 
spent all the money for my rooms, etc. Do you know what he said 
respecting the letters from which I have copied extracts? ‘If 
Madame Couloumb — who has undeniably helped you in some 
phenomena, for she told this to me herself — were to proclaim it on 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


137 


the top of the roof, it would change nothing in my knowledge and 
that of Dr. Hartmann, Brown, Sinnett, Hume and so many others 
in the appreciation of Theosophy and their veneration of the 
Brothers. You alone would suffer. For if even you yourself were 
to tell me that the Brothers do not exist, and that you have tricked 
in every phenomena produced by you, I would answer that you 
lie ! For we know the Mahatmas and we know that you could not 

no more than a fly on the moon — have produced certain of the 
best of your phenomena.’ See there ! conclude from this what the 
truth is, and what he thinks. 

“ If I have not done more for you than I have it is because I 
had not the means. Absorbed altogether in the cause as I was, and 
still am, I think of nobody. May I perish, but may the cause flour¬ 
ish ! If you compromise before Lane-Fox, Hartmann and the 
others, all well. I shall never return to Adyar, but will remain here 
or in London, where I will prove by phenomena more marvellous 
still that they are true and that our Mahatmas exist, for there is one 
here in Paris and there will be also at London. And when I shall 
have proved this, where will be the trap-doors then ! Who will 
make them ? Why do you wish to make the colonel hate you and 
set him against you, as you have put all at Adyar against you? 
Why not quietly remain friends and wait for better days, helping us 
to put the society on a firm basis, having large funds of which all 
Theosophists who have need of protection and help in money 
would reap the benefit? Why not accept the 2000 rupees which 
Mr. Lane-Fox offered you, and spend the hot months at Ooty and 
the cool months with us as in the past? 

“ It appears that Damodar has not a cent left. He asks money 
from us — from us ! and we who spend, spend, and shall soon have 
no more, for it is no longer coming in. And you, you wish to 
alienate from the cause the only man who is able to help it, the 
only one who is wealthy. Instead of becoming friends with him 
you are setting him horribly against you. Ah, my dear friend, how 
miserable and foolish all this is ! Come, I have no ill-will against 
you. I am so much accustomed to terror and suffering that no 
longer nothing astonishes me. But I am truly amazed to see you, 
who are such an intelligent woman, doing evil for its own sake and 
running the risk of being swallowed up in the pit which you have 
digged for another,— you, yourself, the first victim. 

“ Pshaw ! Believe, both of you, that it is a friend who speaks. 

I love M. Couloumb well, and until he says himself to me that I am 
mistaken respecting him, that he has left you to speak and talk of 
trap-doors without contradicting you, I will never believe such tales 


138 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


respecting him. He is incapable of it. Undo then the evil that 
you have unwittingly done. I am sure of this: You are carried 
away by your nerves; your sickness and sufferings have undone you 
mentally. The anger which you have aroused in the board of trus¬ 
tees annoys me more than they annoy you. But if you choose to go 
on disgracing me for no good to yourself, do it, and may your Christ 
and God repay you ! 

“After all I sign myself, with anguish of heart which you can never 
comprehend, forever your friend,—H.P.B.” 

What can I say more? Is it not conclusively proven that, to 
obtain money, Madame Couloumb and her husband, immediately 
I was out of the way, began to outrage my memory and work 
to extract still more funds from my children, the chelas at Adyar, 
and with such people Hodgson founded his report of my phenomena 
and immersed my memory in the crude criticism of the skeptical 
and inimical. 

Added to all this, and while I was miles away, this phenomena 
was performed, as much to my surprise as to those who perceived 
it. It added much to the dilemma, as at Adyar they were disposed 
to oust the Couloumbs from the place and drive them to that of 
their chosen associates, the Christian missionaries. 

Now compare this letter of Madame Couloumb’s to me : 

“ My Dear Friend: I verily believe that I shall go silly if I stop 
with you longer and remain among these extravagant Theosophists. 
Now let me tell you what has happened. 

“ On my arrival home I found General Morgan sitting down in 
that most beautiful office of ours talking with Damodar and Mr. 
Couloumb. After exchanging a few words I asked whether he would 
wish to see the ‘shrine,’ and on his answering in the affirmative, we 
went upstairs, pausing on the outside on account of the furniture of 
your sitting-room being heaped up to block the doors and prevent 
thieves breaking in. The general found the portraits admirable, but 
I wished that I had never gone up, because on my opening the 
‘ shrine,’ I, Madame Couloumb, who never care either to see or have 
anything to do in these matters, as you well know, must needs go 
and open the ‘ shrine,’ and see before my eyes and through my fin¬ 
gers pass the pretty saucer you so much cared for. It fell down and 
broke in twenty pieces. Damodar looked at me as much as to say : 
‘ Well, you are a pretty guardian ! ’ I, trying to conceal my sorrow 
on account of General Morgan’s presence, took the debris of the 
cup and put them in a piece of cloth, which I tied up and placed it 
behind the silver bowl. On second consideration, I thought I had 
better take it down and reduce it to powder this time. So I asked 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 139 

Damodar to reach it for me. To our unutterable surprise, the cup 
was as perfect as though it had never been broken, and more, there 
was a small note enclosed : ‘ To the small audience present as wit¬ 
nesses. Now Madame Couloumb has occasion to assure herself that 
the devil is neither as black nor as wicked as he is generally repre¬ 
sented. The mischief is safely and easily repaired.—K.H.’ ” 

Round this fact alone there is sufficient raison d’etre to explain 
all of Hodgson’s report without mysterious persiflage. However, I 
leave the problem to the elucidation of the inquirer. I think that 
honesty and good faith show all through the tissue paper of base 
betrayals and lack of responsive good-heartedness of my colleagues 
and associates. 

Not but that I fully understand that a teacher is required to stand 
the criticism of the ignorant, to be abused by those who are being 
served and to find in the rebuffs of salient adversaries that growing 
strength to proceed and verify life’s findings in any domain. I felt 
disheartened, assuredly so, and sought in repose and incognito a 
relief from a seeming broken career. 

Not that I ever doubted Master’s wishes or the work which I was 
assuredly doing for his orders and desire, but the way was “ up hill 
all the way, yes, to the very end,” and tired and weary I left Adyar 
in disgust. 

It was afterward in London that, sailing with flying colors, we, 
freed from the embarrassments of these pernicious blackmailers, 
found new friends and fresh conquests. Newer and more remark¬ 
able phenomena were daily witnessed, and the Couloumbs and their 
base wickedness did not one thing but to drag them down and make 
of them the sink of iniquity, which is their everlasting portion. 

Madame Couloumb and her husband, as the agents of the black 
magicians, were really the instigators of Hodgson’s activity and their 
own downfall, while the religion of Truth gained fresh impetus and 
from these very troubles rose, Phoenix-like, and soared into the 
minds and hearts of our best associates and helpers. I can never 
forgive Olcott, however, for his activities in this connection, and in 
this regard can explain that not one line of notice has he received 
since from the Mahatmas. They wrote him disclaiming any further 
interest in him and leaving him to his Karma and the reward of his 
ingratitude. 

Olcott in India, Judge in America and myself in London now 
gave an international character to Theosophy. The world arose to 
remark that we were in earnest and respect grew up on every side. 

The publications came out like magic; there was a wave of Occult 
literature on every side. The “ Theosophist ” was commenced, in 


140 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


America “The Path ” and I soon after began “Lucifer,” all of 
which were intended to enlighten and teach the people. All of us 
with incongruous and diverse ideas worked in as much harmony as 
possible, differing as to the best methods of executive attack and 
features of propaganda, differing in temperament, but each seeking 
to extend the usefulness and growing worth of this only work in the 
name of Spirituality and the “ Masters.” 

What has become of Hodgson and his report of my personality? 
What has become of the Couloumbs? Buried under the mountain 
of their own insufficiency, led astray by their presumption, and 
ruined and lost in the jungles of egotistical ignorant illusions, I can 
leave them to their own reflections and heart burnings. 

In success an evil man may find some recompense for his own 
duality and hypocrisy; but in dense and absolute failure, what an 
epitome of suffering. This is enough to deter the wicked, and it is 
to that conspicuous failure that I leave my critics. Theosophy still 
lived; the power and impulse generated by our united personalities 
broke out afresh and buried under the wreck those who digged for 
others a pit and found in it their own selves and a fitting reward for 
iniquity. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


141 


CHAPTER X. 

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY IN LONDON. 

Treachery of A. P. Sinnett.— Formation of the Occult Publishing Com¬ 
pany.— Editing of “ Lucifer.”—Address to the Archbishop.— Resig¬ 
nations of the F. T. S.— The Esoteric Section, and Commentaries of 
the Book of Dzyan, or Sectret Doctrine.— Mrs. Annie Besant, Mr. 
Herbert Burroughs et al. — Vacation at Hove, Brighton.— “The 
Boundless Sea.”— Voice of the Silence.— Further Dissensions, Spirit¬ 
istic Vagaries and Discussions.— Open Rupture with Judge.— Order 
Issued from Thibet for the Society to Disband.— Rebuttal by Judge, 
Olcott and Annie Besant, and Exoteric Manipulation.— Death.— 
Cremation. 

“ If thy soul smiles while bathing in the sunlight of thy life; if thy 
soul sings while within her chrysalis of flesh and matter; if thy soul 
weeps inside her castle of illusion ; if thy soul struggles to break the sil¬ 
ver thread that binds her to the ‘ Master,’ know, O Disciple, thy soul is 
of the earth. 

“When to the world’s turmoil thy budding soul lends ear; when to 
the roaring voice of the great illusion thy soul responds; when fright¬ 
ened at the sight of the hot tears of pain, when deafened by the cries of 
distress, thy soul withdraws like the shy turtle within the carapace of 
selfhood, learn, O Disciple, of her silent ‘ God,’ thy soul is an unworthy 
shrine.” —The Voice of the Silence. 

Now that the Theosophical Society was beginning to make a 
noise in the world and the publications of Mr. Sinnett were begin¬ 
ning to reap a harvest of return, the silent and slimy elementals of 
ambition, envy, slander and jealousy began to manifest. The atten¬ 
tion which had been drawn to Mr. Sinnett and the fortune which he 
had made out of the sale of the “Occult World” and “Esoteric 
Buddhism,” attracted the attention of numerous persons to our 
movement, not for a love of altruistic endeavor or a desire to re¬ 
spond to a demand for the salient unfoldment of the psychical 
powers latent in man, but merely to see in what manner they could 
benefit themselves at our expense and become a drudge upon me 
and a failure for us to carry and acknowledge. 

I had the greatest difficulty to retain the turbulent waters within 
their banks. Olcott, Sinnett, Hartmann, Coues, Mohini and Judge 
were difficult to manage.—Drawn into all sorts of jealousies and envy 
for the manner in which Master treated them, and watching that 
each one received the expected share of patronage and appreciation, 
my life became a trouble and no cessation. Each of these person- 


142 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


alities were fitted to do a work expected of them in connection 
with Theosophy, and yet each was desirous of adopting a widely 
different policy. 

The trouble with Sinnett culminated when he asserted that I was 
given wholly over to elementals, and that the Mahatmas had ap¬ 
pointed him to carry on the workings of the London lodge, in which 
he had been in undisputed possession while I had been in India, 
this of course being emphatically denied by the Mahatmas in a 
letter which was published and given widespread notice. 

But our chief difficulty was about the royalties in the books 
which Mr. Sinnett had received through my labors and which he 
held chiefly to himself, while I was practically without a penny. 
Being a silent partner of George Red way & Co., he was able to pub¬ 
lish and receive a large return, practically a fortune, from the works 
and the interest in them through the advertisement of my person¬ 
ality,— the notice which phenomena always received and the per¬ 
quisites of the renown which obtained as the author of those publi¬ 
cations and their widespread reception. 

I could obtain no account from him of any share which I held in 
the receipts, although I was clearly entitled to some share of the 
already large returns. To fight me the more effectually he retained 
all proceeds, and I was obliged to make a change in the publication 
of “ Lucifer,” my magazine which I used for proselyting purposes, 
and which contained the now famous essay and paper to the “ Arch¬ 
bishop,” occasioning the resignation of the larger portion of the 
members of the English branch, and on account of which the maga¬ 
zine was afterwards successfully boycotted until the very moment of 
my death. 

Fighting Sinnett tooth and nail, with his “ flapdoodles ” and real 
deceit, we organized the “ Occult Publishing Company,” with offices 
in Duke Street and with the two Keightleys as workers and mana¬ 
gers, but they had not a particle of ability in a business line, and the 
work languished and we lost money; they had enthusiasm and de¬ 
sire to devote themselves to the cause, but these are not sufficient 
to cover the necessities of a business enterprise. 

We also organized ourselves as a household and took up a lease 
of the premises No. 17 Lansdowne Road. Here the work was 
given a real impetus and we had the satisfaction to see who was the 
better qualified to lead. 

The people flocked to me, and not because of curiosity, for I had 
peremptorily refused all phenomena now to all applicants, and had 
been sustained in that feature of my own desire by “ Master.” Sin¬ 
nett carried on his own lodge, which had more the elements of a 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


148 


discarded order of Masonry than our own organization, but failed 
from this day to evoke any enthusiasm. I take occasion to say 
here that he was given his own prominence and notoriety upon my 
bruised and bleeding body, and that all claim to intellectual worth 
in the realms of the Occult that he can find anyone to endorse is 
due to me and my nine years of teachings. The only return for all 
this is a peculation of the proceeds of the publications and the cir¬ 
culation of the now exposed fallacy that the “Masters” had de¬ 
serted me and taken up Mr. Sinnett. Since my abandonment of 
Sinnett, beside the publication of a very inopportune work upon 
mesmerism, etc., which has no policy but one of total obscurantism, 
and is almost wholly borrowed from Mesmer and Du Potet, he has 
fallen totally out of sight, unknown and forgotten,—must now realize 
that his lurid glow was the temporary reflection from my own per¬ 
sonality, and that he was supported by his delusion of respected 
worth and mighty attainment solely by his own egotism, and not by 
any inherent faculties to which he could lay claim. This lesson 
which Sinnett, in common with the others, have learned will stick 
by them and make them in a coming embodiment more humble 
men and better able to estimate their own worth and the value of 
gratitude for unmeasured assistance by unselfish ardor on the part 
of a badly treated companion. 

Not that I wished to blow my own horn, but only to call atten¬ 
tion to facts. I can safely remark that all these individuals have 
fattened upon my heart’s blood, and now that I am gone from the 
visible scene of my late endeavor, they have one and all sunk to 
their own level of worthless seclusion, where they will remain until 
by their own efforts they will become illuminated with desire to be¬ 
come selfless workers for the benefit of humanity and progress upon 
their merits. I hope that it may be soon, and they will remember 
then how difficult it is to live upon the plane of Upasaka and still 
the criticisms of the blatant rhetoricians in conventional thought. 

Anna Kingsford and Mr. Maitland came to me with a perfect 
failure on the part of their mysticism to satisfy even the small circle 
of their intimate friends, or to induce any investigations or converts. 
It was part of their plan to use me for the purpose of giving noto¬ 
riety to their personal ideas, and infusing glory and power into their 
recrudesce nee of primitive Christian thought. I loaned myself to 
this idea until I plainly saw ruin ahead of them. Piety and resig¬ 
nation may be very worthy qualities to enter the arena of public 
work with, but alone they create no furore which could subsist a 
day. Both of these people were worthy in attainment and ambition 
to live a pure life, but it is impossible to discount the emanations of 


144 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


the human family and purity is not to be obtained and substituted 
for a natural conduct. 

I loaned them the columns of “ Lucifer ” for a time, but we 
soon quarreled on account of personalities which are too small to 
find recital at this time. Anna B. Kingsford was a Bible clairvoy¬ 
ant. Her vision was not clear, but was seen through ages of heredity 
of technical theology, and all her visions were consequently irra¬ 
tional and of no avail to reorganize religion,—merely proved that 
she could have the inner sight and see the evils of the church from 
which she was a declared apostate. Mr. Maitland confirmed all that 
she saw with no other reason nor use but that he was in love with 
Anna Bonus. They were declared soul mates and were in a state 
of mortal anguished magnetic rapport, which was painful to all but 
those who sympathized with them and this idea. Union was im¬ 
possible with these people and we soon separated, but at no time 
was any phenomena in question, as at that time I did nothing for 
the chelas. 

Mohini had quite a quarrel with these worthy people, but I was 
not even interested in it. 

It has been a marvel to some that the Mahatmas selected Mr. 
Sinnett to bring out the work. Of course Sinnett brought his literary 
skill, and this was excellent, being always clear and terse; but the 
matter to write about was the very integuments of my life, and that 
could have been given to Olcott but that he had become a discred¬ 
ited witness because of his close familiarity with me. At that time 
it was necessary to have a new and fresh person to give the work the 
strength of their character and opinion. Olcott never recovered 
from the position of second place, and Elliot Coues, when he found 
that he could not generate powers of any sort, began to abuse me 
and threaten both myself and Judge with exposure if he was not 
placed in charge of the American section, with correspondence 
assured with at least one of the Shabarons or lesser chelas of the 
Brotherhood. This fight with Judge for supremacy was continued 
bitterly and without intermission, and on its reconstructive basis was 
begun that examination of Judge and his mystifications which has 
resulted in his complete exposure and demise. 

I can only assure the world that all that I did had its origin in an 
honest attempt to enlighten some small part of the world’s workers, 
and leave my knowledge where it would serve and elevate those who 
desired to lead the higher life. 

Mr. Elliot Coues was in every way a desirable applicant for the 
position which he coveted, but Mr. Judge had done all the work for 
a period covering the time after we left for India until Theosophy 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


145 


assumed admirable proportions as a publicly recognized work, it was 
impossible for me to substitute, for Judge, Mr. Coues. 

I did all that I could for Coues as well as for his estimable wife, 
who was one of the best friends I ever had. It was, however, his 
own fault that his very critical nature repudiated the phenomena 
and also the fact of the supernal beings behind the work. To a 
skeptic, a prominent position Theosophically was impossible. The 
hypothesis of some force in the normal world had to be admitted, 
and the fact of reincarnation as a principle in the return of souls 
was a tenet which subtends an illative, though perhaps a tentative, 
coporeality as an integument of thought. 

Had Coues chosen, he could have been the first intellectual met¬ 
aphysician in the world. His mentality was able to diagnose all 
the subtle elements of mind and analyze the various parts of man in 
principles and essences of being. 

Between Coues and Hartmann there was a distinct difference ; 
while Coues was a competent mental analyst, Hartmann accepted 
truth from the impulses of his heart, and was under the direction of 
a most effective and reliable intuition. 

I had thought of placing Hartmann at the head of the American 
section when rumors of Judge’s fraud and substitutions in the line 
of mystifications first reached me. It was a radical attempt on my 
part, but for my refusal of Coues’s demands I had to face another 
attempted exposure as vicious as that of the Couloumbs but not so 
decisive. For my failure to realize all of Hartmann’s wishes I was 
obliged to publish the criticism and parody of my work in India 
which he good-naturedly had written and which placed my Masters 
in contempt. It was the story of “ The Talking Image of Urur.” 
I see in its chapters the attempt to serve those who were under the 
spell of personalties, and thus to do themselves an injury; and be¬ 
lieving that Hartmann desired really to serve those, I gave him the 
columns of my own magazine to expatiate upon my work and am¬ 
bitions, the character of Olcott, and to bring us all more or less in 
disrepute. But by this time I was careless of what people thought 
of me or my work. I knew that it would grow and that those who 
were competent would come after me in the waves of the coming 
race and understand the truths of my being in a brief moment, 
while these critics would have all passed away on the bosom of 
time. Coues dropped out of sight as a chela with his intense con¬ 
ceit and critical nature. Hartmann failed also after his arraign¬ 
ment of “ Masters,” and has attained to nothing but interior quiet, 
if that, and this will do no one good but himself; besides, I doubt 
the efficacy of quiet for one soul. We are all bound together, and 


146 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


unless we bring peace to all or a large majority, it will be impossible 
for anyone to resist the impact of the mental disquiet of the cosmic 
pulse. All people are bound together, and the progress of anyone 
depends upon the accelerated progress of all. 

It is therefore clearly the duty of one who is in advance of the 
others of his brothers to stand by them and try to lift the burden of 
their Karma, in order to enjoy that felicitous state of Nirvana, in 
peaceful reverie contemplating the total good and feeling one with 
the throbbing pulse-beats of all men. 

I pass the whole category of failed chelas, and among them is 
my good old conspirator and friend Hartmann. I hope he will 
come out of his seclusion and pass the rest of his mortal career in 
the work of elevating humanity. I know of not one person so com¬ 
petent to uplift and teach the blind in spirit. Passing in review 
those who collaborated with me in my life work, I come to “Amara- 
vella,” or the author of Parabrahm, among the contributors of the 
Theosophical gleanings, and Mr. Claude Falls Wright, who has be¬ 
come such a competent lecturer under the full influence of Master’s 
authority. 

“Amaravella ” was a French mystic who had left his country to 
escape military service and attempt the pursuit of Occult research. 

I may not give his name, but he will be known by his nom de guerre. 
A most capable metaphysician, his thesis upon 44 Parabrahm ” alone 
gives him precedence among the countless throng for Theosophic 
honors. 

Of Wright I can only say that under the right conditions I ex¬ 
pect much from him, especially now as he is not under the contam¬ 
inating evil influence of Judge and his mystifications and false 
attempts to pose as a thaumaturgist. I will follow Wright and at¬ 
tempt to continue my work through his organism as well as it is 
possible for me to. 

The most powerful factor in the continuing and salient character 
of the work was the incoming recruits to take the place of those 
who were worn and distracted by the many serious troubles of the 
organization. One of the most powerful of these was Mrs. Annie 
Besant, and another was Mr. Herbert Burroughs. They both were 
interested in Spiritism and Occult research, and with Mr. Stead, of 
the 44 Review of Reviews,” as an outlying ally, the work prospered 
and I was enabled to overcome any and all resistance. 

The Mahatmas about this time sought to apprehend Colonel 
Olcott for his failure to realize their wishes, and in a letter that they 
managed to send him by an expenditure of psychic force, and 
which he received on the steamer 44 Shannon ” in midocean, gave 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSIvY. 


147 


him a rebuke for many of his absurdities. I am not desiring to 
make its full contents public, but enough of it to let the public 
understand why, during all these years, no sign has been given 
through him as to their wishes in respect to the many serious prob¬ 
lems which have occurred in regard to the management of its ex¬ 
oteric welfare. 

The letter suggested that Colonel Olcott had been dropped as a 
recipient of these messages because of his ingratitude to me and his 
failing devotion to the cause and a leaning toward our enemies; 
because of a fanatical honesty, which was of more importance to the 
high mind of the colonel than the duty which he undoubtedly owed 
to me as well as to the invisible founders. It was therein explicitly 
stated that he, Olcott, was to have the management of the exoteric 
affairs of the society, while in all things which had an esoteric basis 
and related to purely Occult matters I was to have everything to do. 
It effectually settled the statements of Sinnett and others as to my 
being under the control of elementals and deserted by my Masters, 
and it opened the way for me to bestow upon Mrs. Annie Besant 
the coronet power which was her due. I also gave her full liberty 
and a controlling interest in my “ Lucifer,” and for her interest and 
lectures as a member of the society gave her a high position in the 
Esoteric Council. While the organization was fully autonomous in 
its relations to the members’ free will and their beliefs, still there 
was a point at which I was obliged to draw the line, and in this re¬ 
spect I could stand no nonsense with Olcott. Mrs. Besant gave me 
invaluable help during the latter years of my declining health in the 
management of the meetings of the London branch. It was due to 
her coming over to us with her strong following that I saw my work 
attain to some promise of everlasting renown and worth before I 
finally succumbed to the final hours of my last earthly embodiment. 

Her course during the time when I relinquished the work and 
my transition I entirely approved of, but since then her deception of 
the public, however unintentional, under the Machievellian influence 
of William Q. Judge, is most mischievous, resulting in her failure in 
the trust imposed by me in her, and before the public partially un¬ 
doing the good work by losing the good opinion of her capabilities 
as a trained Occultist, well fitted to observe phenomena. 

It is most painful for me to be obliged to acknowledge that Judge 
has failed signally to achieve his ambition as a proved thaumatur- 
gist. How anyone who stood so close to me as did Besant could 
be fooled by these most flimsy communications, I cannot conceive. 
I certainly thought and believed that I left in the possession of 
Besant and the household the secret of my return as a metaphysical 


14S 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


fact in metempsechosis, and to be led by the nose and fooled before 
the public as to the most signal of our powers, in the messages of 
the Mahatmas, is a crowning disgrace and one which the Masters will 
not easily pass by. Woe indeed to Judge or anyone who attempts 
to simulate real phenomena by the exercise of trick or device — to 
cheat for personal preferment. I feel sincerely sorry for Besant in 
her mortifying position. She can never regain the confidence of the 
public in this work, and no matter what desire the Masters might 
have to give something to the world as to their intentions, they 
could not possibly do it through the organism of Mrs. Annie Besant, 
for it would only bring her into greater ridicule, and the public 
would not believe her credulity or even honesty after her fall. 

It is so important, for anyone who designs to lead their fellow 
mortals, to be prepared with sufficient wisdom as not to fall a prey 
to the designs and ambitions of their associates. While I called 
William Q. Judge my brother and said that I loved him as a son, 
yet I did not warrant anyone accepting messages from him in a 
blind and trusting spirit, nor giving him a homage far beyond his 
worth. If Judge was working all those years to gather in for him¬ 
self the pomp of power and the position of self-preferment, then I 
say that, having this intention, he has not done anything for The¬ 
osophy, but was instigated by love of self and a desire to make for 
himself a position in which he could manipulate his superior skill 
and love of intrigue, as did the ancient priests and hierophants of old, 
thus bringing their philosophies into contempt and fearing each day 
that the truth had found them out. Of course, I never judged his 
work; at the most I only saw him a few days each year, and Besant 
knew that we were often at full loggerheads upon questions of policy, 
differing to the point of a full breach. How could she and the house¬ 
hold permit him to acquire this great hold upon them, even after 
being warned by one who came to them at my suggestion, and with 
full proofs as to his authentic claims? Poor Annie; fallen in the 
opinion of her friends, accused by her enemies of insanities, and 
being under the dominion of Buddhist black magicians, she now can 
understand a small tithe of the dreadful injury which skillful calumny 
will work. From the plane of a respected leader of thought she has 
fallen to that of a victim of William Q. Judge, and not only has her 
own injury to account for, but that of those who followed her, as the 
blind are led by others equally blind. 

I can see no reason to hope for her regaining an even temporary 
ascendancy, nor that the breach between her and Mr. Herbert Bur¬ 
roughs can ever become healed again. Poor Mead, too ; he laughed 
often at others and fell into the trap himself. I read his pamphlet 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


149 


and his defense of his conduct,— as if one who is fooled can suc¬ 
cessfully defend themselves. Any crime is better than to be a vic¬ 
tim, so it is thought by the illusionary world. They will all have a 
chance in another life, when they can see the error of their way and 
remember that humility is the only weapon of the one on the Path 
with which to overcome all of its pitfalls. Study self and come into 
humility early, for pride goeth before a fall. 

Being obliged to start an esoteric section, to teach those things 
which it was impossible to impart to the students except under the 
bond of an oath between the teacher and pupil, I carefully prepared 
those whom I could trust so that they would not drift back into the 
worldly methods. I sought in this way to impart magnetic and 
sexual truths which could be imparted from ear to ear during the 
next ensuing years, but in this I was also sadly disappointed, for the 
one on whom I had placed my highest trust and affections, Mrs. 
Cook (Mabel Collins), sought to destroy me and do me the highest 
injury. For years we worked side by side doing the editorial work 
upon “ Lucifer,” but, like all of my pupils, there were reasons for 
jealousy, and she deserted me for a fancied injury to her friend, Mr. 
Keighley. 

Bert was an indefatigable student and developed great psychic 
powers while under my influence, but as he was formerly attached 
to the affections of Mrs. Cook, I had the trouble to separate them 
in the interest of his best good, and for this I was amply rewarded. 
Mrs. Cook brought suit against me for her fancied troubles and I 
was accused of slander, if nothing worse. What I bore for her sake 
and that of Mrs. Vittoria Cremers, heaven only knows. The indig¬ 
nation and annoyance was tremendous for a time, and it resulted, 
as all these rows did, in the utter extinction of the adversary and 
complainant. 

Bert and Archibald Keighley put their shoulders to the wheel 
and placed Theosophy in the front ranks of psychic importance, and 
their devotion is the one thing upon which I can look with reverence 
and deep feeling at this hour. While I defended them from attack 
and taught them all that they could absorb, I was desirous of leaving 
them upon a plane of perfection, which would have effectually pre¬ 
vented their present lapse into conditions which are the reverse of 
prudent. I will try and influence them for their best good, and in 
that way hope to overcome the intrigue of William Q. Judge and 
that work which is now the deep concern of Archibald Keighley. 
I am sorry that the chelas all looked upon Judge as one whom they 
could trust. For my part I never trusted anyone, but brought to 
bear upon all questions the light of my own reason, and upon that 


150 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


based my convictions of propriety and use. This will be best under¬ 
stood by them all now. The suit brought by Mrs. Cook was settled 
out of court by the pressure of Occult power, else I would have had 
another scandal to account for and more treachery to recite. 1 he 
work of Mrs. Cook entitles her to my best wishes. Her “ Blossom 
and Fruit ” and rules for those seeking the higher life are especially 
worthy of praise. At the time when these were written, Mrs. Cook 
(Mabel Collins) was under the influence of the Brothers, and one 
of them especially controlled her organism to give to the world 
“ Light upon the Path,” a treatise which was of the greatest benefit 
to those seeking to come under the esoteric influence. After our 
separation, I do not see but that she fell into desuetude, as did all 
those who attacked me and withdrew their personality from the 
cloistered household in Theosophy. It was its need to a benighted 
world which gave them the prominence they enjoyed, and with a 
prudent regard for me and the purposes of the work, a continuous 
and faithful performance of their duties as Theosophists, with 
supreme devotion to the cause, we might all have brought the 
strength of our ideas to a harmonious union, and in this produced 
the reform which would have startled the world. One single edi¬ 
torial of mine expatriated my lodge from favor and gave me a “ black 
eye ” for a time with some of the weaker members. I thought it 
was to be another failure, and in consequence of my physical disa¬ 
bilities, which required rest and permanent residence, I was alarmed 
for a time with the shrinking timidity of my chelas. I think the 
address to the archbishop in the early “ Lucifer,” the best of my 
essays at that time, was antagonistic to the established Church of 
England, and this displeased the English members, who, although 
radical in demanding reforms among the clergy and in the dispen¬ 
sation of princely incomes, were afraid of the intense indignation 
which the article in question excited. I called upon the archbishops 
to account for the large sum of their holdings in realty and the in¬ 
comes derived from tithes and taxes, donations and revenues, and 
to consider if it was not incumbent upon them to feed the poor, re¬ 
lieve all distress, instead of devoting all but the small residuum to 
new church windows and the ritual of reiteration and extravagance. 
I see now that this article, which called forth the signal abuse of the 
Theosophists at that time and gave Sinnett a new chance to abuse 
me and attempt to elevate himself, was at the foundation of the 
world of thought which has since united to demand the dis-estab¬ 
lishment of the Church in England. Also the abolition of the House 
of Lords is demanded, as that institution does more to maintain 
this gigantic fraud upon the people than any other conservative 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


151 


body in politics. It was a prescience of the coming change which 
induced me to follow the commands of Master, rather than consider 
the prejudices of the members of our t society. Of what concern to 
me was it if they all resigned ? I was not in the receipt of funds 
from them, but was giving them of my knowledge and power from 
day to day, without price,— freely, as my Master gave to me. 

I look back now to this my essay against wrong and sacerdotal 
evil as the most important speech against error which I ever wrote. 
If I might, I would have it spread broadcast at this hour all over the 
land, to free the minds held in hypnotic subjection to the united 
force of churchly arrogance. 

The archbishops attempted to answer me, but the troubles came 
upon them both thick and fast among their own family, and the State 
began to writhe under the fearful cost of the maintainance of this 
enormous theological incubus. I see now that the Church in Eng¬ 
land is doomed. Curates are starving or attempting to eke out a 
semi-respectable living with the help of relatives and friends. The 
whole edifice of organized religion is tottering, and every thought of 
mine, every word which I wrote against it, will help the fall. God 
speed it! Liberty of thought is what we want in the world, personal 
individual freedom, possibility for all men to come into relations and 
knowledge of their soul without the intervention of paid and lying 
servile priests, who keep the people ignorant in order to reap a har¬ 
vest of avarice. The best way to secure this is to break down dogma 
institutions and all manner of device upon the part of organized 
religion, to maintain a suzerainty over the minds and intellect of 
man. When the Church of England goes down and every other form 
of organized thought as to man’s relation with his soul, then the 
Master will indeed come and institute the thousand years of peace 
upon the planet Earth. 

If in this grand apotheosis of liberty any word of mine has been 
useful in enlightening the world, then I have not lived in vain and 
the work of Theosophy has never failed. It was this idea that I 
had always in mind : To make the work of Theosophy a beacon 
light to the world at large, that it might feel the leaven of liberty 
working to free the mortals in bondage, give their souls a fresh im¬ 
petus, struggling to express the power of spirit, and tear down not 
only the incubus of superstition in theology, but the false respect 
and prestige enjoyed by an antiquated philosophy of life and death. 

I feel that this has been done, and if every feature of Theosophy 
is a failure, if Judge has tarnished the vehicle of Truth and Olcott 
and the others fallen into disuse and desuetude, still the world feels 
the impulse which my life gave and the accumulated force which I 


152 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


brought it in the personalities of these Theosophists, who as martyrs 
first held to the radical tenets of Truth, than which there is no reli¬ 
gion higher. 

So apart from all personalities, which I merely review to show 
that I am conversant with the features of each collaborator and the 
true light in which I held their efforts for advancement in the intri¬ 
cacies of the Path, I find that our little body of pilgrims have had 
an effect upon the evolutionary waves of thought in its primordial 
attempt to release the world from the antics of anthropomorphic 
domination. 

This must be held to have my work, the part of my life for which 
I was incarnate, and the success of which must be gauged by the 
broad scope of the general knowledge held by the entire body of the 
people as to the doctrines inculcated, and not by the advancement 
or proficiency of any one pupil or their honesty, or the reverse, for 
in all life the impulse is wasted or conserved as the intention of the 
participant is known. If one engaged in work for the liberation of 
men is selfless and full of love and veneration for the greatest good, 
they will become the faster advanced and their work will shine with 
the finest translucent lustre; but if it is dominated by ambition to 
lead, envy of a superior, or jealousy of a rival, the value of their ser¬ 
vice is impaired to the full extent of their weakness, but still they 
are martyrs and primary in the feature of radical work if they have 
done what was to be done. 

Held to the idea which was to be evolved, and stimulated the 
propaganda by a partially altruistic endeavor to serve, I do not be¬ 
lieve that any self-devoted body of people could have done more 
than we did with our varying purposes and temperaments. Each 
of us was held by some feature of our desire. I can safely say that 
my hatred of arrogant dogma in both science and religion made me 
a faithful servant in the orders of my Masters, for it is to them that 
the world owes all of its existence, by the balance of power which 
they hold in the plan of enlightenment, and if the powers of dark¬ 
ness and that part of man which seeks self was not offset by an 
undercurrent of concealed beneficence the planet would have been 
destroyed long since. Elementals of great power have importance 
in the invisible world and play their part in the minds of the auto¬ 
matic factors, which express the intention of Parabrahm in cosmic 
creation. If these are not offset by divine wills and the agents of 
the Brotherhood, they destroy not only themselves, but the very 
existence of the cosmic aggregations. 

Those who were important in ruling the affairs of the Theosophi- 
cal Society were led by their inclinations and desires to do the work 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


153 


of the Brothers while they were willing to bring about the broad 
idea of the intention of the invisible founders, but when they sub¬ 
stituted their wills and ambitions against that of their superiors they 
were removed or transferred to some other plane of active partici¬ 
pation. This is the best proof of some power behind the work, and 
should be a prompt warning to anyone who is disposed to attempt 
to lead the work upon the framework of personal ambitions. 

I removed, during the progress of the trouble with Mrs. Cook, to 
Hove, Brighton. My disease grew upon me ; it was with the greatest 
difficulty that I could move my cumbersome body about, and it was 
discussed with the Mahatmas as to the feasibility of renewing my 
mortal frame for another term of iconoclastic labors, or incinerating 
it and performing a rebirth by a transferrence of the spirit in the 
nature of A’ves’a to another mortal body borrowed with the con¬ 
sent of its occupant for the purpose. This is not a startling innova¬ 
tion in psychic phenomena, but is done by the Brothers when a 
Grand Llama is about to renew an earth pilgrimage or attempt some 
significant thing in the world of cosmic matter. There are cases 
of transferred spirit into the bodies of pupils in Occult work merely 
to overcome the perils of a long ocean voyage. With some great 
teachers the activities of the Neptune powers and the planet of 
Pisces are especially malignant, and to overcome the risk of an acci¬ 
dent within their confines Buddhi are disposed to attempt to use 
their knowledge to offset the fatal supremacy of these malific forces 
within their own dominions, and they can overcome the risk by the 
means of an Occult A’ves’a, or spirit transferrence, for an indefinite 
time or for the rest of the natural term of the life of the body se¬ 
lected. A whole volume might be written about this mystery, and 
sometime I may attempt it. Mere fragments are found relating to 
this subject, and I will gather them together and give a small treatise 
of the manner and the science of spirit transferrence. It was decided 
to attempt A’ves’a, and I was given the Book of Dzyan to make com¬ 
mentaries upon, before transition and metempsechosis, resulting in 
a text-book for students given under Master’s direction, and which 
the world has now under the title of “The Secret Doctrine.” This 
was compiled in London, and is from secret truths of the wheel of 
progression and the hierarchies of celestial perpetuities that will last 
the coming race for hundreds of years. 

Looking out upon the broad and turbulent waters of the English 
Channel, under which the grinning skeletons of countless thousands 
of shipwrecked mariners and travellers repose, my thoughts turn 
to this grand apothesis. I could come back into the world, turn 
my back upon my merited rest in Nirvana, and bring again a fresh 


154 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


impetus to the world of wandering mercenaries, lost in the fogs and 
delusions of Maya ! Will I do it? Shall we add to the clustering 
phenomena of which the last century is full by this crowning tri¬ 
umph of metempsechosis? Shall I, H. P. Blavatsky, return to give 
my hand to those who would know me, and bring light and life to 
my suffering ones at the last hour when hope has ceased, and in the 
absence of any sign from the Mahatmas, in the face of the desertion 
of my associates, by death or denial, impotence or disgust, when be¬ 
lief in the phenomena of psychic correspondence has ceased, and 
the communications of the Mahatmas are in disrepute and would 
not be believed if given by God himself: shall I return myself? 
In the flesh! Will the power to do this be given? And, at the 
end of the last years of the cycle, perform before the astonished 
gaze of the skeptic this unanswerable paraclysm of thaumaturgic 
design? The little bell tinkles,— a message I think,— but the 
silence is profound, the vibrations return no particle of material 
resonance. A thought comes to me : Whose body will I enter and 
consummate this grand coup at once upon my enemies, and to up¬ 
hold my friends? I look at the Countess Wachmeister sitting at the 
bay-windowed recess, and then in my mind search for a possible 
entity with whom to make this grand co-partnership of soul parti¬ 
tion. But there is no practical response to my inquiry at that time. 
Still the idea is given, and from that hour all my energies are in 
concentrated unison upon this fact, the result of which will bring 
me the fact of immediate re-birth and the desire to achieve the con¬ 
summation of my work. 

A gentleman calls from the States, and with him comes a mes¬ 
sage received in the Americas. Of the import of this I will speak 
later on. At present there is a letter to write from Master, and 
must needs be inserted in this final chapter: 

“ Dear Brother H. P. B.: 

“ All that has gone before is well; turn now your attention again 
to infinite things, for we are at one with your next purpose. Bury 
in the waves of the great waters of Lethe all of the annoying things 
of the past, the fight of personalties, the impotence of the barren 
world to grasp the inner things of worth and the immeasurable 
things of importance which we have given them. 

“ The necessary impulse which this age demanded has been 
found in that power which we have vouchsafed. It is not within 
the power of our will that they be accepted; it is only before us in 
the council that we give freely and reserve nothing which would 
tend to free the mind of man and bring him to the consideration of 
his birthright in the spiritual enlightenment. 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


155 


“ ^ is prudent to awaken inquiry about the soul, it is unwise to 
attempt to transcend the Karmic development of the ego, and we 
cannot do more than transmit a healthy atom of mental suggestion 
to those who are not at one with Upasaka or self-introspection. 
Give yourself no concern with results, for they are not with us, nor 
are you responsible for them. 

“ And now, dear Brother, at the close of your life’s work in this 
mortal body, prepare for the next step. Soon upon the wings of 
thy soul’s desire thy entity will attempt, under our direction, the con¬ 
summation of metempsechosis, as the final phenomena in the grow¬ 
ing chain of those submitted to a crassly sempiternal ignorant world. 
We have promised and will perform a creshendo of phenomena that 
will astonish all beholders upon the last days of this personal kalpa, 
in the hour of twelve. Within thyself wish with us for the perform¬ 
ance of this fact, and the soul will be received within the company 
of the one who has been selected for thy companion or twin. In 
this receptacle for thy Spirit continue thy work and it will attune 
to harmony the grave discords which will envelop thy associates at 
an important moment, and give our brothers of the black a fitting 
setback, from which they will not recover for many years. 

“ It will astonish the decaying world of materiality, awaken re¬ 
newed thought, bring under the influence of our order those who 
are ready for the Path, and bring us to those who are ready to ac¬ 
cept the fact of our existence. Down the pathway of time, en¬ 
veloped in the miasma of their deadly breath, the enemies of truth 
are falling in aggregated numbers. The days of error’s chains will 
soon terminate. Institutions of false dignity, erected upon the 
sands of error, will tumble and in their ruin give way to the primi¬ 
tive simplicity of smiling liberty. Man has been in the thralldom 
of his own devices, he has dallied with illusions and been long in 
company with lurid fancies and impotent conceits. While the voice 
of his immortal soul cried out for recognition and his eternal life 
was limited to his carnal desires, tempted by elementals and lured 
by sirens of lust and avarice, the world yielded to decay. Degener¬ 
acy of all real ideals was interpreted into success, and it has been 
success in material delusions and apathy of reality. Evolution rules 
in destiny, than which there is no higher power. We are all subject 
to its necessity, but in this age we have the power to assert the soul’s 
supremacy, and in this fact we are triumphant. Thy life’s work, so 
strangely begun, is now to change its mortal tenement, and thine 
eyes have seen thy new tenement. Soon, freed from thy present 
chains, thy Spirit will seek new fields and fresh victories. Be 
patient as thou hast always been with us and the trials of earth exis- 


156 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


tence, for soon the shackles of illness will be cast off, and then the 
time will come when the full effects of the work will be apparent 
and fill thy being with joy and gladness. To the companion of the 
hour we bring greetings, and trust that she will remember that we 
are with her in all of her devoted duties for us and the world of 
mankind. (This had reference to the Countess Wachmeister). 
‘ The Secret Doctrine ’ will be a text book for future generations 
of man, as we have said in its exalted teachings and facts will be 
found a new and added power to your society, and the world will 
find in your intellectuality some measure of merit with which to 
counterbalance its irritation with your phenomena. In the sanctity 
of your mentality and its high poise will be found all excuse neces¬ 
sary for what they may regard as vagaries of an erratic enthusiasm. 
Avoid piety and cant and the conscious evil of a majority in error; 
it is better to have none but yourself as a complement of power 
than to teach false and hypocritical doctrine, to gain adherents to 
the cause which you represent. We find nothing to praise in an 
inflated enthusiasm, nor in the aggregation of imposing array of 
pupils, who would desert you again as soon as some theory or idea 
was advanced with which they are not in accord. The formula 
which is in use for the re-embodiment of our Grand Llamas will be 
followed in your case. It is many centuries since our order has 
undertaken the fact of A’ves’a. 

“ Look for the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Neptune, 
when the issue will be complete. Sagitarius and Mars will occupy 
the degrees of right declension, and the moon will be in full rapport 
with the sun. Under this auspicious blending of celestial influences 
we will make the transfer. Nirmanakaya, Socrates.” 

(“The Society must now be disrupted; it has served our pur¬ 
pose for the initial plan of the work, but its exoteric formulae is 
now prejudicial to its real motive, so dissolve its branches and give 
it disintegration.—K. H.”) 

Few people will realize that I was at this time unable to walk at 
all. The most I could do was to waddle about the room I was so 
afflicted with illness, and when I was obliged to be moved from one 
city to another it required the united services of a host of attendants 
to perform the change. Sitting at the writing desk for hours at a 
time and engaged almost wholly upon sedentary work, it was quite 
natural that I should come to grow quite obese and that my body 
would naturally reflect my great habit, common enough in Llamas- 
eries, of eating melted butter, which is part of a divine ceremony of 
incantation, and is always performed in the spring season as a tes¬ 
timonial to the gods. I was taken about for air in one of those 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


157 


small carriages which are used by invalids at the beach, and each 
day that I could manage it the interesting drive common to the 
English people was taken in company with a friend. Numerous 
cups of tea and some solid food comprised my diet, and in this 
way the hours and days passed while I was engaged in the prepara¬ 
tion of the “ Secret Doctrine.” I had the editorial work upon 
“ Lucifer ’ ’ to attend to as well as to correct the numerous “ flap¬ 
doodles ” of the F. T. S.; the full work of the esoteric section with 
its composite instructions; a lot of correspondence to answer and 
much Occult work to do besides. I was assisted in all these multi¬ 
farious duties by the Countess Wachmeister, Archibald and Bert 
Keighley, Mrs. Annie Besant* and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, also many 
others who came in and helped us in mailing circulars and Theo- 
sophical siftings. The work at the publishing office in Duke Street 
required much attention, and some of the household were there 
constantly, selling pamphlets, loaning the books from the library, 
answering questions and preparing the matter for the weekly meet¬ 
ings at the house in Lansdowne Road. At evening the family 
gathered and had the simple meal in the heat of a discussion over 
matters of importance to us all. We were always joined at meals 
both in the morning and evening by some visitors and friends who 
were in sympathy with the movement but had neither the opportu¬ 
nity nor the courage to join. Later on I was discussing the many 
metaphysical problems of man’s being over the game of solitaire, 
and upon the green baise cover of my card table, in the mellow light 
of the drawn shade, would draw innumerable symbols to explain to 
the students some disputed fact in the little understood science of 
the myriad-sided and many-principled mortal, man—the best sub¬ 
ject for study of any in nature, and one upon which all philosophers 
agree, although the dispute and variety of opinion are diverse about 
his character, needs and tendency. 

At these evenings all subjects under the sun were discussed and 
in all or any language. It was not uncommon for me to invite dis¬ 
pute with scientists, theologians, materialists, Spiritists, free think¬ 
ers, socialists, anarchists, and those most radical of all theorists, 
Mahouts or Nihilists. In French, German, Spanish, Italian and 
English these disputes were maintained and brought out all that 
there was in us in the way of information and intelligence. It can 
readily be understood that we were quite a polished set, and that 
after some time spent among this caviare of intellectual entourage 
one must be poorly inclined indeed to want to return to the tiny 
beliefs of the Oi Polloi. 

The seven principles of man were discussed and a competent 


158 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


analysis of the doctrine arranged. This would prevent the confu¬ 
sion of ideas which always arises when the state of the argument is 
unknown or little understood. It is quite common for many to 
confuse the principle of man which is meant in a metaphysical dis¬ 
cussion, and thus the subject is not well treated because the per¬ 
sons are talking about— one, the man material, and the other, man 
spiritual. About ten o’clock I usually withdrew and sought my 
rest, and until the last days I maintained this as the rule of my life. 
I was much concerned about the last order of “ Master ” to dissolve 
the Theosophical Society and reluctantly talked it over with the 
household, who considered it as being an emanation of our enemies 
inserted upon the Koot Hoomi letter. But I sent out the order 
and it made the final trouble of my life, for I saw that they 
were not disposed to accept. Judge and Mrs. Besant with the 
colonel desired to maintain its exoteric head, but I, who well knew 
the Occult side of the order, was disposed to carry out “ Master’s ” 
wishes. I understood that our work was to be merely preparatory 
to the coming of the “Master” himself, and that good was best 
accomplished that would serve to introduce him to the world. So 
long as the organization conserved this useful purpose, it was a de¬ 
signed good; but as the tree is relieved from the covering which 
assists its early growth, so the work of Theosophy was designed to 
grow among the public as it had incipiently taken root with the 
society. My demise was considered a good time to begin this dis¬ 
integration, and especially as I was only a forerunner or precursor 
of the “ Master,” whose agent I was, and it was designed to dissolve 
any and all organization which would interfere with his final treat¬ 
ment of the work. 

Those who do not understand this esoteric part of Theosophy 
will thus side with Judge and Besant, for it did seem inconsistent to 
make an imposing display of our accretions and work consistently 
for that end and then to dissolve the order. But Theosophy, unlike 
any other form of work, had its reason, and that was paramount to 
personal ambitions and a desire to rule officially in the ranks of a 
powerful organization. 

The schism with Judge came at this time, and he openly defied 
me. In a letter which he wrote me at that time he affirmed that 
he was in communication with another set of African Adepts, who 
desired that the society be kept intact, and that it was desired by 
them that he, Judge, should attain to leadership in the order and 
rule the members into a set form of Theosophical tenet. I hastily 
wrote to Olcott about it and changed my will so that in Besant as 
my executor I would find an ally to carry out “Master’s” plans and 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


159 


defeat Judge’s policy of personal preferment and use my work as a 
shield to his own ambition. The muddle became most profound 
before my last days, and, hastily conceiving the intentions of Judge, 
I did all that I could to dissolve the branches, but the order which 
I sent out was misinterpreted by all. Many never saw it at all; 
those who read it were under the rule of Judge, and, deceived by my 
former adulations of him, which were merely colloquial and not 
sincere and literal, gave their strength to oppose the wishes of the 
Brothers — with the result that has been witnessed since my incine¬ 
ration, an almost total disintegration of Theosophy, and the result 
which was foreseen by the Brothers and provided for and ordered. 
The struggle for leadership after my demise, which gave me the 
greatest concern, and in which my influence was fully enlisted, has 
now almost terminated, and the need of the age, a coming leader 
of the people, will soon be a fact accomplished ; for not only is such 
a leader necessary but the age will require such, as well for the 
reason of its crass ignorance as for the unique troubles which will 
beset it in these the last days of the Manvantara. But such a 
leader will come for the people and not for the interests of any 
society or especially prepared peoples,— for all those who can fol¬ 
low in the path of an inspired prophet to find the Arcadian revela¬ 
tions and the exodus from the problems which will become more 
perplexing than ever. In preparing the minds for this great event, 
the Theosophical Society has had its use and purpose, and, having 
done it, its best interests will be conserved by dissolving, so that the 
next movement can assume the platform of the Truth, than which 
there is no religion higher. I finally, on the eighth day of May in 
the year 1891, relinquished the hold upon my mortal essences and 
material body and superintended the last obsequies of my remains 
in company with the Spirit of Le-Palm, for whom I had stood spon¬ 
sor at his obsequies. The transition was accomplished with a sigh 
and a final breath with the magical formulae upon my lips, and, 
breathing the A. U. M. of the thaumaturgists, I passed from the con¬ 
trol of my environment, the gaze of the loved ones in the world ter¬ 
restrial, and passed into the world of Spirit and that sphere of attain¬ 
ment which was to be my temporary abiding place until the fact of 
the secret A’ves’a was accomplished. 

How can I speak of these great mysteries in cold, vulgar lan¬ 
guage; these transcendental and sublime supernal events? Death 
is a signal triumph over matter; it is a holy change, a breath of 
God’s inner divine nature and the apotheosis of all life. Into the 
beyond with the simplicity of complex nature, under its myriad laws 
for the perpetuation of itself, my ego was ushered. Under its same 


160 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


laws of highest import will it return in the fulness of time and by- 
virtue of its own inherent power and the possibility of the knowledge 
of my “ Masters.” Before this great change I had been removed 
from the house in Lansdowne Road to the last abiding place of my 
mortal life at Avenue Road, in the household of the sister Besant. 
Here, surrounded by the loving group of my immediate entourage, 
I gave my soul its flight. 

I had ordered my remains cremated in order to immediately 
destroy any lingering attraction for the body which my habit and 
impulse might generate in the akasic condition, and to the end that 
I might the more readily perform the entrance into the next tab¬ 
ernacle of the soul. 

While my Spirit is free to assume its own individuality, it has all 
the added power of another body in which to return at no distant 
day and finish the work already begun, and this is the A’ves’a 
already mentioned, a succinct fact in the grand creshendo of the 
phenomena given through and by my organic ego. 

From the world celestial I have watched the struggle for supre¬ 
macy in the Theosophical Society and its disintegration. I have 
seen the rising prominence of Mrs. Annie Besant and her activities 
of lecturing, and the whole of the deception practised by Mr. Judge 
to obtain the power to rule. From lofty heights the conventions 
have been followed one after the other, and I was present at the trial 
of Judge which his perfidy resulted in. After this he made the 
schism of the age in the rupture between the different countries of 
Theosophical activity, and insinuated himself as the American leader 
at the price of the work losing its international character. From 
the post of secretary, Judge tried to advance and take the place of 
the master, and in this he was foiled by immediate removal and 
premeditated decease, for in this cult there is a grand apotheosis 
which cannot be impeached nor overcome, and in this I will as¬ 
suredly have a hand and voice. For this purpose I have been 
assured of my return to the Earth in another body, healthy and 
vigorous and with added powers, and the weaker evil adversaries to 
combat. Look for me, for my return is no vagary nor imagining, 
but an Occult fact. In the stillness of the night, as the sunlight of 
the early morn steals over the land and clothes the hilltops with its 
majestic coloring, so will my presence be known and recognized, 
and in the return of my individuality the supreme questions will be 
relegated to me for settlement. In the demise of Judge, the oppor¬ 
tunity has come for me to announce myself, and within sixty days 
look for my re-embodiment among the faithful in the city of New 
York, for within that time my Spirit will lose the faculty of commun- 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


161 


icating as a spirit and come into the recognition of new terrestrial 
powers for an added term of life. The conditions for this event 
have been already prepared and it will come to pass, but not as a 
woman will return, not as a creature of difficulties. The form which 
was mine has given way to one which is borrowed for the time, and it 
will possess the prerequisities of animal health, vigor, strength and 
a power for combat which has rarely been seen, and this fact is 
already known at headquarters among the few of the esoteric sec¬ 
tion. It has already been hinted to the world. And now in con¬ 
clusion let me see if by the words of our enemies we have nothing 
to find as an especial prerogative of Theosophical activity. Mr. 
Arthur Lillie makes this assertion in and among his hypercritical 
reflections. This creed he says “ has grown with astounding rapid¬ 
ity and virulence of standing. In 1876 the Theosophical Society 
had not one branch, or only one, yet in 1884 it had no less than 
one hundred and four. In the year 1885 there could be found one 
hundred and twenty-one. In 1886 the sum increased to one hun¬ 
dred and thirty-six. In 1888 there were one hundred and fifty- 
eight. The branch in Paris dates from last year. Of the one hun¬ 
dred odd centres more than ninety-six are in India. The others are 
in various places spread ail over the globe from South Africa to the 
wilds of Alaska. In Constantinople, in the steppes of Siberia, among 
the snow-tipped hills and plateaus of northern Russia, among nobil¬ 
ity and match girls, all sorts and conditions of men, in Ceylon, in 
Burmah, Australia, Africa, in the United States, in England, Scot¬ 
land, Ireland, in Greece, in Germany and in France. The French 
‘ Society of Isis,’ though recent, possesses many distinguished names, 
scientists, nobility and intellectual beings. 

“ But since then the progress of the society has been still more 
remarkable, if we may trust the list of charters published in the 
‘ Theosophist ’ for December, 1891. 

“In 1888 the society had one hundred and seventy-nine centres. 
In 1890 it had no less than two hundred and forty-one centres. In 
1891 nearly three hundred branch names appeared upon the index 
of its esoteric list. This is a great success, and it is to be confessed 
that in other countries besides France ‘ distinguished names’ are to be 
quoted in connection with the society. Messrs. Crookes, Myers and 
Gurney took an active interest in it. Mr. Edward Maitland, a man 
of tremendous genius and author of ‘ Pilgrim and the Shrine,’ joined 
it, together with Mrs. Annie Bonus Kingsford, an able writer upon 
christo-theosophical facts; also Mr. Sinnett and Doctor Franz Hart¬ 
mann, both able literati. 

“ Professor Max Muller has given advice to Colonel Olcott on the 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


102 


subject of Oriental translations, and borne testimony to the good 
work in that direction ‘Theosophy’ has accomplished. And Mr. 
Gladstone has done this ‘ substitute for a religion ’ the signal honor 
of giving it and Mrs. Besant, its chief, a long theological article in 
the ‘ Nineteenth Century,’ that waxwork gallery of the notabilities of 
the hour. 

“ In every department of literary work we hear of the Astral body, 
the tenet of Karma and the full responsibility of men for their actions 
rather than the pernicious doctrine of vicarious atonement; the 
theory of reincarnation, which is the real touchstone of the creed 
of the average Christian, is discussed in a whole flood of latter day 
literature, and back in the shadow of incipiency and shrinking into 
the gloom of the night of desuetude are all but those whose vocabu¬ 
lary are adapted to this fin de siecle age of Theosophy, and the 
Occult standards of active and current thought. In the sanctuary 
and the parlor, in the busy mart of commerce, in the dusty and well 
used editorial sanctums, the reportorial records are to be found, in 
the front and foremost partitions, the knowledge and statistics of 
Theosophical activities, both in a personal sense and in regard to a 
sufficient understanding of the subject to place its controversial 
aspect intelligently before the public. 

“ Added to all this and to bring it to a fuller climax, a more im¬ 
portant conquest was made. Mrs. Annie Besant is a woman of 
singular integrity and ability. She has brought to the growing 
strength of the work her unrivalled platform eloquence, her impas¬ 
sioned inspiration in the realm of auricular rhetoric. I cannot show 
how important Theosophy is growing unless I give vent to these 
tributes to’ our activities and the acquisition of the elements of pub¬ 
lic people who have adopted its philosophy as the crowning change 
in their life of search for the ideal in religious thought. 

“ But in its ultimate, the real inquiry before us is not so much 
why Madame Blavatsky failed at times, but how it was that she 
achieved her astonishing success ! ” I do not think that Mr. Arthur 
Lillie or any other skeptical dotard need be answered further, for 
they’convict themselves out of their own mouths. 

I may be permitted also to quote from the article in “ Border¬ 
land ” of Mr. Stead. We can see from this if what has been my 
life’s work has signally failed or been of such a nature that honest 
and law-abiding people must drive it from them as the work of some 
uncanny beings, or fraud : 

“ If everything be true that Dr. Hodgson and the Psychical Re¬ 
search Society say about her, it only heightens the mystery and adds 
to the marvel of the influence which Madame Blavatsky undoubtedly 


HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 1G3 

has exercised, and is daily exercising at the present time. For the 
most irate of the skeptics cannot deny, and will fail to dispute, the 
fact that the Theosophical Society exists, that it is far and away the 
most influential of all the associations which have endeavored to 
popularize Occultism; and that its influence is, at the present time, 
felt far and wide in many lands and in many churches, not by its 
adoption as a true philosophy, but in the shrinking of the congrega¬ 
tions to adopt other doctrines. The number of pledged Theoso- 
phists may be few, although it is probably greater than most people 
imagine; but the Theosophical ideas are subtly penetrating the 
minds of multitudes who know literally nothing about Theosophy, 
and are profoundly ignorant of all the controversies that have raged 
about Madame Blavatsky, the initial founder. 

“ This is eminently the case with the doctrine of reincarnation, 
and with the altered estimate which the average man is beginning 
to form of the mystic teachers and seers of India. Reincarnation 
may or may not be true. Whether true or false, it has, until the last 
decade, been almost an unthinkable sequence by the average west¬ 
erner. This is no longer the case. Multitudes who still reject it as 
unproved have learned to recognize its value as a hypothesis ex¬ 
plaining many’of the mysteries of life which are otherwise inexpli¬ 
cable. Many admit that there is nothing in the reincarnation an¬ 
tagonistic to the teachings of Christ. That it is possible to hold 
firmly all the great verities of the Christian revelation, without re¬ 
jecting the; belief that the life of individual, upon which judgment 
will be passed at the Great Assize, is not necessarily confined to the 
acts done between the cradle and the grave, but may be such an 
existence of which such a period is but one chapter in the book of 
life. Altogether, apart from the question of the actual truth of the 
doctrine, it is indisputable that the sympathetic recognition of the 
possibility of reincarnation has widened the range of popular thought 
and infused into religious speculation some much-needed charity. 
And this, which is unquestionably a great achievement, will ever be 
associated with the name and personality of Madame Blavatsky. 

“ Still more remarkable has been the success with which this re¬ 
markable woman has succeeded in driving into the somewhat wooden 
head of the Anglo-Saxon the conviction — long ago arrived at by a 
select circle of students and Orientalist, of whom Professor Max 
Muller may be said to be the most distinguished living representative 
_that the East is, in matters of religious and metaphysical specula¬ 
tion, at least entitled to claim as much respect as the West. That 
indeed is stating it very mildly. ‘The snub-nosed Saxons,’ as 
Disraeli used to love to describe the race which made him prime 


164 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


minister, are learning somewhat of humility and self-abasement be¬ 
fore the races whom, by use of material force, they have reduced to 
vassalage. 

“ Down to quite recent times, the usual idea of the average Eng- 
glishman — notwithstanding all the books of all our pundits — has 
been that the Hindoos were benighted and ignorant Pagans, whom 
it was charity to subdue and a Christian duty to attempt to convert. 
Today even the man in the street has some faint glimmerings of the 
truth that these Asiatics whom he despises are, in some respects, 
able to give him points and still leave him far behind. The Eastern 
sage who told Professor Hensoldt that the West studied the stom¬ 
ach, whereas the East studied the soul, expressed strongly a truth 
which our people are beginning only to assimilate and digest. We 
are learning at last to respect the Asiatics, and in many details of 
knowledge and wisdom to sit at their feet. And in this great trans¬ 
formation Madame Blavatsky figures again as the leading Thauma- 
turgist. She and those whom she trained have bridged the chasm 
between the materialism of the West and the transcendental Occult¬ 
ism and metaphysics of the East. They have extended the pale of 
human altruism and brotherhood, and compelled us at least to think 
of a conception of an all-embracing religion, with wider bases than 
those of which the reunionists of Christendom have hitherto dreamed.” 

I quote another article from the pen of M. Brunetiere, of the 
“ Revue des Deux Mondes.” It is the “ Bankruptcy of Science,” a 
new phrase which is having a run of success in France such as the 
world could hardly have anticipated. According to M. Brunetiere, 
Science is plainly bankrupt, disenthralled and 'pliocene. But as yet 
on this point there is still a difference of opinion. There are some 
who declare that Science was never so prosperous as now, but in the 
face of the failure of the Koch limph, the new anesthetic and per¬ 
oxides, the alarming increase of suicides, which Science has no idea 
of a remedy for, and the vexed questions of mind which the subject 
never even touches, but dismisses with a declaration of insanities, 
the revelations of the inter-etheric forces outside the domain of 
Science, and the last new feature of the unknown, the discovery of 
the X rays of light and its neutral affinities for its components, show 
that if not actually bankrupt Science has become inert, lethargic 
and no more is in the front ranks of the inquiring entity. M. Bru- 
netiere’s phrase does not, however, touch the domain of physics; it 
merely refers to the materialistic philosophy which treats as trivial 
or baneful all speculation that is beyond the range of physical proof. 
To quote from his matter, which has been so much discussed, will 
suffice to show exactly what he means : “ From a Darwinism barely 


HELENA PETIIOYNA BLAVATSKY. 


165 


assured of the truth of its principles, or from a physiology that is 
still rudimentary, we may appeal to a more extended Darwinism, or 
to a more learned physiology; but in the meanwhile we must live a 
life not merely animal, and no science of today can show us how to 
do this.” Science, then, according to him, is bankrupt in the sense 
that it has failed to satisfy what is in the nature of man, or to lift 
the veil of the mystery which surrounds him and his varied princi¬ 
ples. Probably in no other country do such rapid changes take 
place in the atmosphere that is formed by the perpetual whirling 
and grinding of the wheels of the human mind as in France. The 
remark, however, only applies to that limited but noisy world which 
is kept in constant agitation by floating ideas; the mass of the pop¬ 
ulation is stolidly indifferent to all that does not immediately 
concern its material interests. Ten or twelve years ago M. Brune- 
tiere’s article would have been received with such blustering deri¬ 
sion that the approving voices would have been drowned by the 
noise of the mediocre claquers, who are ubiquitous as well in the 
amphitheatre of modern thought as in the entre’acts of the coming 
drama or the newly versed opera. Indeed, M. Brunetiere might 
then have lacked both the mood for writing it and the courage to 
print it if the opportunity had been given, which we doubt. But a 
marked change has come about in the philosophical drift of the 
French mind of late. 

Voltaireianism is very nearly dead. The polished mockery and 
refined but bitter cynicism in regard to Spirit beliefs and powers of 
the soul, with other supernal speculations, wherein Edmund About 
and so many writers of his day and generation excelled, and which 
were so much relished by an epicurean bourgeoisie, have quite gone 
out of fashion. 

That insagacious temper of mind seems to have quite worn itself 
out. No doubt it may come again, but the fact to be noted as a 
mental phenomenon, to be philosophically pondered, is that this 
most skeptical of centuries is ending in France — the fatherland of 
free-thought — in a disposition of mind which, if not Christian, is 
more colored by transcendental idealism than materialism. The 
very keen interest, well maintained in the face of an overwhelming 
opposition, that so many of the French people of the highest intel¬ 
lectual class have of late years taken in Buddhism, Occultism, both 
Neo-platonic, Egyptian and Aryan, Spiritism, Theosophy, and that 
of the Russian lady, Madame H. P. Blavatsky, especially and fore¬ 
most, with the dip into magic and the hermetic philosophies, 
although by no means approved by the Catholic clergy, is neverthe¬ 
less a symptom of the reaction from the extreme Voltaireian mood 


166 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


which lasted so long and which became so very much in earnest, 
so different from Voltaire’s humor that, had he lived long enough, 
he might have repudiated his own disciples. The change is espe¬ 
cially marked among those who represent “ Young France.” A free- 
thought attitude among students, even when it was not sincere, used 
to be a successful pose, because it was a la mode in the Latin 
quarter. The same cannot be said now. The youths of the schools 
have not grown pious, but Auguste Compte, Renan and Darwin 
have lost their hold which they had on the students, and their in¬ 
creasing mysticism is noted by the skeptics with pain and disgust, 
especially by those who were born earlier in the century and whose 
philosophical opinions were fashioned by a very different wave of 
inter-etheric thought. But contemporary literature is perhaps the 
best mirror in which to see reflected that new movement of the 
French mind which has led M. Brunetiere to speak of the “ Bank¬ 
ruptcy of Science.” Several writers of note could be named who, 
from being the thorough-going materialists that they w r ere some ten 
or fifteen years ago, before the present fashionable movement of 
psychism and the cult of Mrs. Blavatsky and the Duchess de Pomar, 
with the ever indefatigable Mrs. Annie Besant as the chosen plat¬ 
form mouthpiece, the theurgy of a recrudescent thaumaturgy, with 
an inner ceremonial of esoteric prostration and a revival of Hindoo- 
ism, Buddhism and the magic of the Essenes as a basis for a further 
reaching knowledge of the world of invisible Essenes and the soul 
immortal, have with steadily increasing boldness and a vigor of im¬ 
peccable transcendentalness been reaching and aspiring towards an 
impassioned idealism that is almost if not quite religious in the nude 
sense of the word. 

A writer in the “ Figaro ” has gone so far as to point to the new 
direction taken by M. Zola’s mind (evinced by his choice of Lourdes 
and Rome for his latest subjects) as confirmatory of the opinions as 
expressed by M. Brunetiere in his remarkable article. Zola, in spite 
of himself, by the choice of his last subjects, Lourdes and Rome, 
deals a blow at the purely documentary theories which inspired his 
other romances. Vainly does he have recourse to the awkward pre¬ 
tence of referring everything, even dreams of visionaries and the 
miracles of Madame Blavatsky, to the immutable action of physical 
forces. In vain does his style remain carnal, even when he essays to 
describe angels and souls. Who does not perceive that his mind 
has taken a new direction, that his rare descriptive faculty is no 
longer urged on by curiosity in regard to bestial passion? Who 
does not see that, in spite of himself, he has started for le pays du 
bleu? Now, in a man of his education (purely earthly), of his ex- 


HELENA PETBOVNA BLAVATSKY. 


167 


clusively sensual temperament, this evolution is equivalent to a 
change of front. “ No doubt due in a measure to the secret doc¬ 
trine of Madame Blavatsky, and the group of the esoteric writers 
who surround this prominent sanscritist and miracle worker. Is the 
mental typography of France to be assailed by this eclectic in philoso¬ 
phy, this renegade wanderer in radical metaphysics? Is the modern 
Joan of Arc to lead us from the captive valleys of materialistic sla¬ 
very, and carry us anew into the rarified heights of supernal ideality? 

“ To cast down the chariots of the defeated, arrogant and pre¬ 
sumptuous skeptics, and in the subtle fancy of the moment insert a 
germ of primitive belief which will substitute the lost faith and bring 
a realization of man’s need in the mental and spiritual domain, 
which has been obscured in the ecclesiasticism of the medieval ages ? ” 

“ If so, the proud Science is not only bankrupt, but will disperse 
its remaining assets, and in the growing crevices of Truth the name 
of Blavatsky will in segregated letters stand for the modern revival of 
Occult philosophy and the dawn of that hunger upon the part of 
man for a satisfying draught of knowledge as to his own destiny 
in the vale of life beyond the borderland, and to enable him to con¬ 
stitute a philosophy for life which will offset the troubles of his 
nature and permit of the vacuity of the suicidal mania, which now 
confronts modern society, if it does no other good thing.” 

I need not digress further, nor trespass upon your time more. 
The Q. E. D. is answered. There was a need for my life and its re¬ 
ward is in the unquestioned help that I have been to the world of 
human thought and endeavor, and I will return ! 

In order to understand the theory of my intended return to the 
planet earth in another form, I will attempt to comment upon the 
A’ves’a, or faculty of transmigration, in the living body of another 
ego. “ This occupancy by living persons of another’s living body, 
though so outside your Western experience that your language has 
no word for it, is, like all else in psychological science, known and 
defined in India, and is the same process in the case of a disem¬ 
bodied Adept seeking a more or less intermittent return, as in the 
case of one who is embodied but seeks to obtain the use of another 
form at a distance for some special purpose. 

“ A’ves’a is the act of possessing, i.e., entering and controlling, a 
human body belonging to a living person, whether male or female. 
(Jivah.) It is of two kinds : When the Adept’s own ams’a (suekshe- 
ma s’arirae’) or Astral body is withdrawn from his own physical body 
and introduced into the other person’s body, it is then the svaru- 
paves’a; but when by his mere will power he influences, broods 
over, or controls that other person’s body to do that which would 


168 


POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS. 


be otherwise beyond its power, e.g ., to speak an unlearnt foreign 
tongue, to understand unfamiliar branches of knowledge, to instantly 
disappear from the sight of bystanders, to transform itself into a 
terrifying shape, as of a serpent or a ferocious animal, etc., then the 
thing is called saktaves’a. The same word may be used to express 
the occupancy of a living body by an elemental or nature spirit. 
Such occupancy may be, (<z) spontaneous, effected by the attraction 
of the elemental toward a psychic; or ( b ) compulsory, i.e, t com¬ 
pelled by the will of a sorcerer or magician, who has learned the 
formulas for subjecting an elementary or elemental to his control. 
Many intelligent readers of Theosophical literature have heard of the 
Hindoo theory of Avatars — the Avatars of Vishnu, the visible man¬ 
ifestations of the protecting care of God over erring mankind, the 
proofs of his desire to keep them walking in the paths of religious 
aspiration. Avatars are of two kinds: Pradyrbhava and A’ves’a. 
The act of assuming a body which has not an ego within, or where 
the ego is content to permit the assumption of a greater entity than 
its own for some great purpose, is called the former, of which Rama 
and Krishna are cited as examples; as well as in the days of prim¬ 
itive Christianity the people exclaimed the Jesus was John returned, 
as was evidenced by the strong similarity of their respective actions 
and the answering enigma of their personalities and work — what 
A’ves’a has been already explained. There are in the sacred books 
of India full instructions for performing the A’ves’a, but it must be 
done under the law which governs events, and the necessity for the 
act must be its dominating feature.” I now tell thee, O Lotus- 
born, the method by which to enter another’s body. 

The form to be occupied should be fresh, pure, of middle age, 
endowed with many good qualities and free from diseases. The 
body should be that of a Brahmin, or even of a Kshatriya (this re¬ 
fers to the caste merely, and such re-embodied might be of any 
country). It should be carried to some secluded place or impressed 
to go there, where there is no risk of interruption during the cere¬ 
mony, with its repose as in sleep. Beside its prostrate form shouldst 
thou seat thyself in the essences of thy invisible cause. Then with 
fixed mental concentration, having long this acquired Yoghi power, 
thou shouldst accustom thyself to an occupation of the various mem¬ 
bers of the body through the channels of the cephalic cerements, 
which correspond to the members of the body. In the course of 
this assimilation thy entity will enter into the body and finally from 
the ground upward the workings of thy soul will begin to assume 
the full control of the embarrassed A’ves’a, or the one obscessed. 
They will finally asleep their skandas or integuments of mind, and 




HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY. 


169 


they will as the drawn seeds of the highland transpose their own 
energies to a contravened substance, and atrophy their own powers; 
then courageously enter fully and with will power upon the seat of 
thy new body and take in thought the full occupancy. In death thy 
members will find a complete abstraction and thou wilt be able to 
consummate the entrance in the time of four years, but when thy 
soul has still its own temple thou wilt find it imperative to merely 
direct from the outside.of the solar-plexus the operation designed for 
the public welfare. Make no attempt thyself, but under the direc¬ 
tion of the governing impulse, else thy work will become abortive. 

The bearing which this matter has upon the problems of H. P. B. 
in my next dilemma is most evident, and I can say that, in the light 
of what is known by the initiates, that I will come again, even as 
one who has gone before. In my successor, therefore, let the world 
look for me to return, and by their work shall ye know them. 

HELENA PETROVNA BLAVATSKY, 

Spirit. 


My Dear Friend, Mr. Wade : 

I desire to write you a few lines in connection with this work, 
which will make plain to you some of the facts of independent 
Spirit typewriting. I thank you for the table and the abundance of 
paper, especially the long folio sheets, which are necessary for the 
book, and I may make use of some for a thesis of length when it is 
desired to get up a great speed. I believe that this will become 
one of the best centres for this work that there is, for in you and 
this medium is a combination of power which will enable me to 
draw the force necessary to maintain a great work and secure results 
which were impossible even with Mr. Yost during his mortal life. I 
need not tell you that there is a host of Spirits watching results, and 
they will bring every power to sustain you and give success. 

My position in the work is that of head operator on the Spirit 
side of life, but I do not write all the work. At present I have 
several operators under me and expect to have a great number as 
this form of communicating comes into general favor. The writing 
is dictated by the Spirit communicating, and the errors are due to 
us and not to them. I will try to have the work as perfect as it can 
be done, and in time I think that you will be perfectly satisfied. 

Now about the book of Mrs. Blavatsky. She and a friend have 
consulted with the esoteric council and it has been decided to begin 
it, but any suggestions which you can make as to practical details 
will be valuable and we will consider them. I have been given 
some of the advance matter by impression from the council, and it 
is desired that I say at this time that the idea is to bring out the 
personal posthumous 'memoirs of Helena P. Blavatsky under your 
medial power, in which there will be attempted to correct the im¬ 
pression of an erroneous nature circulated and written about Mrs. 
Blavatsky by several authors. She desires to give a correct account 
of her life from birth to transition and from her own point of view, 
and make it a signal attack upon the Theosophists’ opinion as to 
the impossibility of Spirit return, set them in their place about phe¬ 
nomena generally, correct a false impression as to her teachings, 
and to give a volume which will satisfy her and give you the mortal 
prestige which is your due for the grand work which you have at¬ 
tempted for the benefit of humanity, and one which is to be con¬ 
tinued by the Spirit world through your organism, with the certainty 
of added powers and some secrets unveiled that will attract you to 
the following of associates who will look upon you as the one se- 


lected to render strict justice and maintain the integrity of Spirit 
phenomena. 

1 his is not a new machine, and I have been cleaning it of spu¬ 
rious magnetism, but it works very well. I cannot tell how long it 
will take for us to finish a book ready for the printer, but it might 
be some months or several weeks, according to the number of sittings 
which are held. 

Yours cordially in Spirit, 

George W. Stevens. 


My Good Friend and Brother : 

This is a great phenomena and it will come in just right for us. 
I will give you my personal memoirs, which you can publish and 
correct lies about my life and help to give the truth, that justice may 
be done. Oh, why did I not know you in life, that I could have had 
one honest and pure soul to depend on who also had the power 
which would have blended with mine. Well, it is now too late for 
that. Wade, you can make money by my book, although I know 
that you do not want that. Olcott is now living off his writings of 
old diary leaves in “ Theosophist,” and he expects to dish me up 
again in some new form, but I will circumvent him, for he and Judge 
are the ones upon whom I depended most after Sinnett abandoned 
me so shamefully in the Hodgson “ exposure.” I will tell you the 
whole story after we get at it. I knew you in the Astral body, and 
but for Master I would have come to America again to see you, but I 
see now that he knew best. I cannot stop long now as the operators 
are busy, but will come again. 

Yours by the hand, H. P. B. 


5 th Sphere 

Friend Joseph : 

What times these are ! How the powers are working to bring 
unity and peace upon the Earth. The hand of mankind is uplifted 
one against the other. Individually, and in the races, conflicts are 
impending and wars breed in the stillness of the night. Yet over 
the mortal world is traced the screed of evolution, and although, 
down to the last one, all are lost or seeming so, rising above and 
beyond is the saving grace of the few great souls who ever work for 
humanity. These will win ! Coming into the life of the people 
soon is the divinity of which we have given promise. 

Await the great revelation. Stand for the promise which saves. 

Yours in Spirit, 

Horace Greeley. 




THE “ PEARL OF GREAT PRICE,” 

By Joseph M. Wade. 

The first half century of my life, beginning with early manhood, 
was given to seeking for something. I did not know what it was 
that I was seeking, and did not know why I was seeking; but I was 
impelled onward by some unseen power from within myself, and 
never ceased seeking, night or day, in work or play. Sunday was 
my best day, for I then could get into the fields and woodlands, and 
on that day there is a stillness in nature and harmony unbroken by 
business. I shunned society always, and especially the company of 
men, for something told me that they did not possess what I was to 
find, hence could not give to me what I was seeking. In union 
there is animal strength, while in solitude the spirit is all powerful. 
Something seemed to tell me that I could find what I was seeking 
in animal and vegetable life, uncontaminated by the selfish, mam- 
mon-worshipping influence of man; hence I sought it intensely in 
every hobby pertaining to nature. I now know that external nature, 
in its ever-varying forms, was but the outer visible shell of what I 
sought, the husk to what I was seeking all those years. The “ pearl 
of great price ” was there, but not visible to my material sight or 
tangible to the senses; for I was seeking the spiritual, not the 
sensual, and I continued to- search with an energy perhaps never 
equalled by any man. I studied nature in all its many forms, such 
as botany, floriculture, horticulture and agriculture, including stock- 
breeding, birds, fowls, pigeons and fishes, and I read lots of so-called 
“ theosophical ” ( ?) literature; but there was little or nothing in it 
for me. It was not of the spirit. I finally was guided to a copy of 
“ White and Black Magic.” Something seemed to tell me that the 
“pearl” was hidden in the matter of that book, but I could not 
even then uncover it as I seemed to know that I should sometime. 
I finally found the author, Dr. Franz Hartmann, in Berlin, Austria, 
who kindly pointed to the “ pearl ” within myself, but I could not 
see it,—could not even think there was anything within myself that 
I did not already know of, and I did not succeed for some time 
after he had pointed the way to it. He was as earnest in teaching 
me how to find it as I was in my “ seeking ” for it. I did not know 
it then that the teacher could not turn his back on the one who 
“ seeks ” as long as he continues seeking. I did not even then find 
the “pearl,” but I kept seeking, night and day, in business and out 
of business, without ceasing, for the visible world, with its sensual 




pleasures, had nothing that I wanted; I seemed to know that there 
was something deeper and grander, something more divine, that I 
had not found. 

Finally I wrote a letter to my old ornithological friend, Dr. Elliot 
Coues, at Washington, detailing some experience that I had gone 
through, and the letter I received from him in reply was indeed a 
surprise to me. It might be termed “ the soul’s awakening.” I 
then began to examine my possessions, as it were, and found that I 
had the “ pearl ” and had had it for some time, perhaps from birth; 
but it was so covered with intellectual rubbish; i.e., pleasures, de¬ 
sires and worldly ambition, that I did not know what it was or that 
I had it even. I worked with redoubled energy to clear away this 
external rubbish, as I would had it been a diamond in the rough, 
and at last the beauties of the “ pearl ” were revealed in me. When 
I recognized the “ pearl,” I knew that I had always possessed it. 
It was a jewel that my father had always worn and exhibited to the 
world, but no one recognized it. As I realized its value, I was daz¬ 
zled with its splendor and the power it conferred, for with its light 
we can read a newspaper and the editor by its head-lines alone; 
we can read a book by its title alone, and if any man will but talk a 
little, or write a paragraph, or do something, we can read his whole 
life or detect that which is real or spiritual from that which is intel¬ 
lectual or illusionary. With a knowledge of the possession of this 
“ pearl of great price,” an intense desire to give it away seized me, 
and this unselfish desire to give is the “ pearl ” itself. I have 
worked harder to give it away than I did to secure it, and have spent 
a great deal of time, energy and money to give it away, working 
night and day, without ceasing, to find some one who would take this 
priceless jewel, worth more than millions of dollars. But, after years 
of searching, I have found but a very few people who will even 
examine it, and fewer still who will ask questions about the “ pearl.” 
The people do not seem to realize that it is a “ pearl of great price,” 
for they are so taken up with the getting of money, on the specula¬ 
tive plane, with which to buy artificial pearls (pleasure) that they 
cannot see its dazzling beauty. Then again, not one is willing to 
go to the labor of securing it and cleaning its outer surface, but all 
are elated to get the rubbish (pleasures) which I cleaned from its 
outer surface; for that is visible to the animal sight and senses, and 
is much sought after. With this “pearl” goes a deed of the whole 
world, as it were, and the power to rule the human race forever. 
Most people would prefer a ticket to the circus; i.e., the pleasures 
of the day, than the “pearl of great price.” And yet he who 
possesses the “pearl” rules all people and all things forever, silently 


but surely. He is the pioneer in civilization, for it gives him the 
lever that Archimedes sighed for and it carries to its owner a “ knowl¬ 
edge of good and evil ”; also a knowledge of the possible and im¬ 
possible inwall men who will act, talk or write, enabling its owner to 
live in the domain of cause; hence able to predict coming events 
{effects). And here I am writing away, late at night, in the hope 
of finding some one who will accept the “ pearl of great price.” 
See Matthew, xiii., 46: “Who, when he had found one pearl of 
great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” The 
“pearl” is the “kingdom of heaven,” i.e., an unselfish life.” 

November 13, 1893. 


THE LAW OF KARMA. 

Christians, so called, know but little of divine law; perhaps less 
than any people on earth, including semi-civilized or savage. Being 
wedded to a church, not “ the church,” they hire men to think for 
them and talk at them for entertainment, and this diverts their 
minds from that which is divine within themselves. Thus these 
people live a religion of words , and among them men who live a 
divine life, judged by their “works,” as we are told to judge men, 
are the exception. But if I keep teaching The Trtith , a religion of 
“ works,” of do unto others as I would have others do to me, as re¬ 
vealed in me, some will say I am attacking the church; and if 
revealing The Christ is an attack, then so be it. First, the writer 
knows that man lives forever, and did not get this from books, and 
he is responsible forever for his works of each passing moment of 
his life, whether those works be good or evil, and his sojourn on 
earth in the body of clay is given to him with the opportunity, 
through good deeds, if he so choose, of having a power (God), i.e., 
love, speak within him, omnipotent and omnipresent, or he can 
allow the power of dissension, contention and inharmony in the 
affairs of life to control his being in every act of life. 

Divine knowledge is given to him who “ seeks,” and it reaches 
him, as a dawn of light, from within the centre of his soul outward, 
as it appeared to Saul. And when it does take place, it is so simple 
and yet so powerful that the illuminated man is amazed, for he be¬ 
comes as another man and is given the power of prophecy to read 



the motives of men; and when he looks on the acts of men (every 
one of which is a cause) the effect of that cause, though it may not 
occur to the individual for years after, is visible to his spirit eyes at 
the time, and he is a “ prophet ” in spirit as of old and can foretell 
results. He then finds profit in material things ever after in selfless 
devotion to duty with the least possible outlay of exertion. 

But to the “ Law of Karma.” When man realizes, as above ex¬ 
plained, that there is no such thing as destroying the effect of a good 
deed or its passing into “ oblivion,” however small that deed may 
be, or the effect of a bad deed passing away (be it but the “ loss of 
temper”), he then knows that all “works,” whether good or evil, 
great or small, are things — actual things — and become a part of 
himself forever, just as much so as the limbs of his body; for a man’s 
life is not a perfected life until he quits the earthly body of clay, not 
before. He then realizes that it is his “ works ” and not words or 
the words of a preacher, whether good or evil, that made him invul¬ 
nerable or vulnerable. If vulnernable, he is lost, and becomes the 
sport of circumstances while on earth, and from which no mortal can 
escape; if invulnerable, the whole human race combined could not 
injure him, for he does no wrong, and where there is no wrong there 
cannot be punishment. He comes out of the den of lions (which is 
a symbolic expression) unhurt, for no one can harm him who does 
no wrong) and this is his karma , an invisible shield, or, to use a 
business term, his life record, that clings to him and has become a 
part of himself, of his own microcosm, forever; and it is for this 
life of “ works ” that man is placed on earth and he can be what he 
wills to be. He who lives a true life of good works while on earth 
is ignored by society, but he is Jirst in Heaven , while that “ so¬ 
ciety ” is lost to itself; for “ the stone which the builders rejected 
becomes the head of the corner,” and he who is first on earth, i.e., 
material life, is last in Heaven. 

It is to the much-maligned Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky 
that we are indebted for opening up the divine wisdom of the 
Orient; for the Western nations knew but little of Karma and the 
concealed wisdom of the East until the advent of this most remark¬ 
able woman. 


Jos. M. Wade. 


A CADENCE IN TRUTH, 


TO JOS. M. WADE. 


Men toil for wealth, 

Seek thou for truth to find ; 
A thief can steal base gold, 
None rob a mind. 

Scheme to be great, 

With all the power of earth; 
Ambition, pride and pomp ! 
What are they worth ? 

Such life is death ; 

He only lives whose acts, 
Made up of noble deeds, 

Are deathless facts. 

They never die 

Who live that souls be fed, 
Such merely change their state, 
The living dead ! 

Be thou among 

The mighty sons of earth, 
Whose souls are touched 
By heaven’s diviner birth. 


And foremost stand, 

With earth’s celestial hosts 

Who do thy will, 

And follow thy command. 

In times now past, 

Thy work so well begun, 

Appears to us 

A glorious victory won. 

Reincarnated soul ! 

Great is thy work on earth, 

Heaven’s highest angels watched 
And ushered in thy birth. 

In all that thou hast done, 

We trace immortal power, 

The most exalted souls 
Will richly thee endower. 

On thee the darkened earth 
Depends for wisdom’s light; 

Give freely, as thou hast, 

And banish error’s night. 


Eternity shall prove 

Full well this promise given, 

And Nature shall award to thee 
Her highest heaven. 

Your friends in Spirit, 

Alice and Phoebe Carey. 





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